I think you're absolutely right. People aren't used to dealing with the functional paradigm that React has introduced and it's interesting, and in many cases the benefits are immediately apparent and in others are only apparent over time (meaning, with direct use). With Angular, however, there was very little philosophical "newness" but a lot of immediate "wow" and the momentum from that was enough to carry it quite far (and rightfully so).

What's happening with React is different though, and happens only once in a very long while: engineering complexities that seem to have spun wildly out of control become radically simplified by something sitting right under your nose.

It's exciting. Congrats to all of those who have contributed to React.