Agreed there are better frameworks now, but at least a simple react app is better than NextJS ( php for js devs )
Discussion
I think all these frameworks are good starts to get up and running quickly, but can lend themselves to forcing bloat over time.
They lend themselves to being dependant on workarounds when the framework doesn't do something the way you want.
Workarounds are time sinks. Rewriting your entire app, doubly so. So start small and build on that.
I like nextJS 13+ but I'm also a backend dev that was forced into doing frontends... To me it feels like the appDir stuff is some serious cutting edge stuff for separation of dependencies and rendering magic between backend and frontend.. and it has cut down on the boilerplate stuff I used to try to do with just react alone..
Anyway, yeah I just realized that to make things people will use I have no choice I could not remain backend only..