yes, "They simply handle events and remove/add/update the specific DOM nodes that are appropriate." is intended as a clarification as to why DOM updates in this style are FAST. I am not intending with that statement for it to serve any purposes about code clarity or structure. (Which i think is clear in the context of what I wrote in the same paragraph, and what I am responding to.)

I am specifically responding to this:

The "shadow DOM" at the root of React is quite central to its appeal, as it speeds up DOM changes by several orders of magnitude."

Of course you can take isolated sentences from me and purport alternate motivations (code clarity) to them so that you can make a new argument against that alternate motivation, but that is a different conversation.

There seems to be a downvote brigade on us React disparagers. Try not to worry too much about. We're releasing faster than them anyway ;)