Funnily enough, I love React. Maybe because I am old enough to have worked with Borland's Delphi in the past.
The feeling I have is that React and UI frameworks put programmers with no design background back in the User Interface game. Because, for the love of God, I hate CSS with a passion.
I enjoy doing side projects not only for the money, but also because of the good feeling of owning the whole stack of the product.