Developing in React is using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It's a declarative approach so the programmer states describes the end result and the React library does the work (code) to update to he DOM. This works really well and is not as hard as the comments make it out to be here. You could write all th JS out to achieve the same thing but it would be silly.
It forces the developer to break things into components which is essential for any maintainable UI.
Since React is the the most popular JS library it is easier to hire for.
SPAs that are done well are a better user experience because the page 'loads' once and then feels faster. That is what users expect.
If a company has multiple sites, it makes sense to be consistent with tech across those sites.
It's ready for future requirements. If you didn't use React and you kept getting requirements for the next few years you would be more likely to end up with a ball of mud if you were doing plain HTML and JavaScript.
One part that I agree seems complicated is the build and dev environment.
It's a 15 page static site with pdf links. What ball of mud would 15 html pages be?
2 years and a huge team cost this company a million dollars. Doing this in html would take $5,000 at most. Hiring for react is expensive. Hiring for basic html very cheap with large pools of candidates.
It forces the developer to break things into components which is essential for any maintainable UI.
Since React is the the most popular JS library it is easier to hire for.
SPAs that are done well are a better user experience because the page 'loads' once and then feels faster. That is what users expect.
If a company has multiple sites, it makes sense to be consistent with tech across those sites.
It's ready for future requirements. If you didn't use React and you kept getting requirements for the next few years you would be more likely to end up with a ball of mud if you were doing plain HTML and JavaScript.
One part that I agree seems complicated is the build and dev environment.