I always assumed that all the folks behind React were driven by a desire to make web programming more functional generally - that this was an ideal toward which they thought we should be working. And furthermore assumed that this was informed by a deep understanding of functional programming generally and the reasons why it is desirable as a programming methodology.
That inspired me to learn more about functional programming... which definitely wasn't a bad thing to do.
But I guess I have just been projecting - I have a friend who I've always considered smarter than me who raves about functional programming... and I guess I just thought this is what smart people generally have come to realise is the god's truth about programming.
It's good to know in a way that Dan is not in fact this religious about it. I wonder how other React devs feel.