As a full stack developer I agree 100%... but honestly you're seeing JavaScript at its worst, and its worst being these garbage, bloated, incompetent frameworks.

Because you're right, compared to vanilla JavaScript these "tools" only make the developers who promote their use the tools. They are not easier, simpler, better, or any other bald faced LIE coming from the echo-chambers of propaganda and bunko of the fans who drank too deeply of the kool-aid.

Kool aid like "Well facebook made this one", and "Google made this one". The latter being pure comedy given the endless string of failures Google has had at just about everything web related that isn't search, ads, or mail.

It certainly doesn't help the endless string of things people are throwing JavaScript at that have either no-business being done client-side in the first blasted place, or HTML and CSS can do without the need for a single blasted line of JavaScript anymore.

You really hit it on the head with "14 different ways of doing things, and none of them are simple" -- or more specifically SIMPLER than vanilla JavaScript, particularly if you haven't bought the LIES of idiocy like the "virtual DOM is better/faster", "batch your changes", "don't store data on the live DOM", etc, etc, etc... more so if you take the time to learn how to ACTUALLY access the DOM.

There's just too much hot-and-trendy lemming bait, people jumping to the latest hotness whilst not knowing enough about the underlying languages to even recognize how badly they're being saddled up and taken for a ride.