Is there any good reason why Apple couldn't just let us code apps directly in JS/React and not have to go through React Native with its overhead? React surely isn't perfect, but it's likely the best way to create large scale UIs. Far better than Swift.
React is a set of JS APIs and tools that live on top of a an underlying model (the browser DOM, litho, etc.) Swift is a programming language. The comparison doesn't really make any sense.
It wasn't meant to be. OP expressed a desire to "code apps directly in React" and avoid "React Native with its overhead." But that's meaningless: the React design is a layer on top of an underlying model, and that layering will always impose some overhead.
