Comment by sim0n

DOM APIs have much improved since jQuery first arrived, so while that was the case originally, it's become less true over time. It's definitely still less verbose though, for example:

  $('.my-component div').css({ background: 'yellow' })

vs.

  Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('.my-component div')).map(node => {
    node.style.background = 'yellow';
  })