&gt; But with that said, if you love React, why not help work on the core? I&#x27;m sure there are issues with React that need solving and if you&#x27;ve got the time your effort may be better spent on there.<p>It&#x27;s not that simple. One of the biggest critic towards the official React implementation is its big size, which is a direct consequence of the decision by the core team to include many &quot;enterprise&quot; features (IE support, safety checks, etc) to suit their needs. Some people like to make different compromise, e.g. more minimal one. You cannot easily change &quot;political&quot; decisions by contributing, also not all features are easy to modularize (esp. for outsiders).<p>Sometimes it&#x27;s easier to implement similar API from scratch to test your own ideas than forking an existing (mammoth) project.<p>Btw, another &quot;tiny react&quot; implementation: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;developit&#x2F;preact" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;developit&#x2F;preact</a>