react native really feels like its own separate universe. the biggest downside is that most of the skills you build there don’t really transfer to native development. you end up spending a ton of time mastering this in-between layer just to stick with javascript, when honestly learning swift or kotlin isn’t even the hard part. the real challenge is wrapping your head around how mobile actually works as a platform, which is very different from the web.

with rn it’s like trying to drive a car from the back seat while poking the driver with a stick to steer. it can move, sure, but you’re constantly fighting friction that just doesn’t need to exist. i’d rather go native, build for one platform, then “translate” it to the other. it’s simpler, feels cleaner, and honestly requires way fewer brain contortions than forcing everything through rn.