But you can use JSX with Vue if that's what you prefer. Vue passes everything down to render functions in the end anyways.

React forces JSX use, so a lot of times the battle between Vue vs React seems to be Vue Templates vs JSX which never makes sense to me.

React does not force JSX use. JSX just compiles down to React.createElement.

I feel React.createElement is so unergonomic it's not really an option to use directly. A lot of React supporters mention it when people criticise JSX, but I don't think it's a pragmatic alternative.

I know people who use React without JSX and it reads fine, as long as you assign React.createElement to a shorter alias. I like that you don't have the visual noise of closing elements. I think it's mostly a matter of taste (and how much you care about your HTML-generating code resembling HTML).