I think the problem lies more in the vast amount of choices to make. Sure for front end developers who are up to date it seems simple, but for newbies or people who haven’t been into Web app development for a long time this is hell.

Sure they can use boilerplates, read through a ton of documentation and guides, and finally come up with something. But by then they’ve wasted countless hours on getting set up.

I think the problem lies in a lack of overview. I think there aren’t a lot of sane ways to go if you decide to develop a React app. But it’s hard to tell if you haven’t got an overview.

I personally really like the Babel setup page, and maybe a website with some code examples, short descriptions and links could make it easier for beginners to get started?

At the very least, I believe, that there must be a starting point even before boilerplates, documentation and guides.