Sure you can. (Same with Mithril.) You can use either library with just a <script> tag and no build process. The notion that you can’t and you have to use JSX + webpack is kind of absurd. It feels like that false notion has been perpetuated and got people thinking they need to use another library if they want to keep things simple.
Actually now that browsers have fetch, async and await, you can do a lot with just those and document.createElement. No need for frameworks.