> A virtual DOM doesn't necessarily imply DOM existence;

That's wrong. virtual DOM is always a parallel structure to real DOM - projection of it. That's by definition of it.

From vDOM authors: https://reactjs.org/docs/faq-internals.html

> The virtual DOM (VDOM) is a programming concept where an ideal, or “virtual”, representation of a UI is kept in memory and synced with the “real” DOM