I am totally with you on this. I've been a React dev for 5 years. When they release new stuff (like hooks), I just wait until it becomes unavoidable, or I need to take interviews for a new job.

I was hesitant to switch to Hooks, or Context. I only studied them when I was preparing for a new job and interviews for it.

I still feel queasy when I encounter obscure Typescript features (e.g. Omit/Pick, Generic Type Templates <T>) used in a codebase. Frontend simply does not need this much complexity....But I just google and find out. I don't personally go out of my way to bring new features into my codebases. Perhaps, only time they become unavoidable is when you're interfacing with a library or building a library to be interfaced.

I have done seriously complex computer vision stuff, 3D game development, embedded electronics. I have seen complex code where it had to be. People make frontend development more complicated than it needs to be most of the time. They just end up plastering everything with newest/coolest tech.