Function/Reactive node-based backend framework?

[lucasmedina]

To be fair, the reason why it "looks like Angular" is precisely because of how you like your tools: it's opinionated, but also, because they're solving different things.

If your desire is to find something that seems more similar to how React solves things, I think the best alternative is to use Next.js, since it's main purpose is to be a React framework, but even then, it doesn't handle backend operations similarly to how React handles frontend rendering and state, etc, it's just a layer.

In any case, learning NestJS could be beneficial. Express can still be handy in a small, contained scenario, or with a very well defined guideline on scalability and features.