But neither is React. And we've been reaching for it by default for everything and that's been a mistake.
So much of what's built these days could be stateless MPAs. Servers have gotten crazy fast, and I'd certainly rather optimize for page size and server latency than build a React app.
With the upcoming views transitions api, a bit of htmx, and custom web components and you get 95% of what React offers without anywhere near the package size or complexity. You don't even need a compile step.
I'd never argue htmx is best for all use cases, I would hate for it to mutate the way React has, trying to be everything to everyone. But I hope htmx is the start of re-thinking how they approach the web and realizing that there are significantly simpler ways to build a frontend.