Firstly, I think there will always be a market for knowing the cores of HTML/CSS/JS - and it certainly sounds like you have a solid foundational knowledge!
Secondly, you specifically call out React as the framework you've been trying to utilize. Have you tried Vue or Svelte? I haven't worked with Svelte, but from what I've seen it's similar to Vue in that it separates your JS, CSS, and HTML into a more familiar feeling than React does.
I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated when working with React and it wasn't clicking in my brain. Taking time to work with Vue has been not only more enjoyable, but also helped me understand React's concepts better in the process.
Lastly, I want to touch on this point you make:
I lack the layers of understanding of JS (and node, TypeScript, CLI, npm, yarn, Babel, ES6, etc). And, to be honest, I don't have any interest in this kind of depth of programming.
I have no clue how these things work after using Vue for about a year now. The most I've had to do is maybe touch a setting to fix a random bug, and that's always been handled by following a tutorial outlining what I need to do. My approach is that as I need to figure those things out, I will and slowly build my knowledge up in the process. I have minimal interest in how these work and would rather just appreciate the people that make them and allow me to leverage their powerful tools.
My DM's are open if you want to talk through this more!
Firstly, I think there will always be a market for knowing the cores of HTML/CSS/JS - and it certainly sounds like you have a solid foundational knowledge!
Secondly, you specifically call out React as the framework you've been trying to utilize. Have you tried Vue or Svelte? I haven't worked with Svelte, but from what I've seen it's similar to Vue in that it separates your JS, CSS, and HTML into a more familiar feeling than React does.
I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated when working with React and it wasn't clicking in my brain. Taking time to work with Vue has been not only more enjoyable, but also helped me understand React's concepts better in the process.
Lastly, I want to touch on this point you make:
I have no clue how these things work after using Vue for about a year now. The most I've had to do is maybe touch a setting to fix a random bug, and that's always been handled by following a tutorial outlining what I need to do. My approach is that as I need to figure those things out, I will and slowly build my knowledge up in the process. I have minimal interest in how these work and would rather just appreciate the people that make them and allow me to leverage their powerful tools.
My DM's are open if you want to talk through this more!
I agree it's easier than React. It starts in a more familiar place of adding a script tag to your project, and using HTML and CSS the regular way.
It's more of a step than a leap.