I started looking at a React tutorial tonight, and the setup involved installing 11.5k files of npm modules totalling 40MB. WTAF!! That gave me a <div> with a single attribute and a single CSS descriptor. Winner!! I maybe should have started with a simpler tutorial.

True, there's a whole bunch of things to set up at first -- and a lot that requires you to think differently, but I find it really worth the effort.

Found JSX ugly as hell at first, but it's really convenient.
Redux (without which React would be just "ok" I find) did require a full mini-project before I'd start really getting it.
I also switched to ES2015 syntax at this point

It was a bit hairy for a few weeks, but I don't regret it one bit :)