People tend to forget that React != React-DOM (i.e. HTML).
React is just a framework for declaratively defining components and reactivity, the end result can be whatever you want. That’s what react-native is for mobile apps, and as another commenter pointed out, in this case it was using React Native for Windows[1], which apparently calls native Windows APIs in the background.
I like to jump on the MS hate train as much as the next guy, but React itself is not the reason the start menu is bad.
React is just a framework for declaratively defining components and reactivity, the end result can be whatever you want. That’s what react-native is for mobile apps, and as another commenter pointed out, in this case it was using React Native for Windows[1], which apparently calls native Windows APIs in the background.
I like to jump on the MS hate train as much as the next guy, but React itself is not the reason the start menu is bad.
[1] https://microsoft.github.io/react-native-windows/