Reddit could have been rebuilt in react and looked exactly the same, and no one would have ever noticed. The problem with the new reddit design isn't react, it's designers.
But we all agree the new site is terrible right? It's especially awful if you don't allow cookies because every page you load you get the "we made a new look!" pop-up.
Yes, the new Reddit design is terrible. Reminds of their app which is also bad.
The new design is bad enough that I have significantly reduced the time I spend on Reddit. Now if they retire the old site, I can kick one social media addiction.
Switch to the 'classic' or 'compact' layout, not the default 'card' layout.
The screaming laptop fan, janky scrolling and slowly loading interface would have tipped me off pretty quickly. Its why I backed the hell out of the reddit beta, its unusable.