The fact that react is popular and has learning resources available doesn't change the argument: “immediate mode” that some boast as a React feature is an illusion that will end up hitting you, and you'll end up using it like any other retained state framework.

React is cool because it's widely used (hence more tooling and learning material) and because JSX is very convenient (it composes very well), not because the vdom works well to create an immediate mode API.