Oh, the pedants have arrived. How delightful.

Yes, technically The_Decryptor is correct - React Native doesn't literally spin up a Chromium instance like Electron does. It transpiles JavaScript into native calls. But they're completely missing the forest for the trees here.

The fundamental architectural absurdity remains unchanged: Microsoft is using a JavaScript framework - originally designed for mobile apps - to render core operating system UI elements. Whether that JavaScript gets compiled to native calls or interpreted in a browser engine is irrelevant to the core criticism.

Your coffee analogy is actually closer to the mark than The_Decryptor realizes. The performance issues aren't just about the final native calls - they're about the entire abstraction stack Microsoft has built.

You've got JavaScript -> React Native bridge -> WinUI 3 -> whatever underlying Windows API calls. Each layer adds overhead, complexity, and potential failure points. The_Decryptor saying "it's in the same boat as MAUI" isn't the defense they think it is - MAUI has its own performance issues precisely because of similar abstraction layers.

This is exactly the kind of technical bike-shedding that lets corporations get away with architectural disasters. Everyone argues about implementation details while the Start menu still stutters when you click it.

The old world would have written the Start menu in C++ and called it a day. The new world creates dependency graphs that look like spider webs and then argues about whether the spider web is technically made of silk or polyester.