> The react model - where you just update the global state and re-render everything - is slower but easier on the brain. The signals model is faster, but so much effort.

there are multiple frameworks now that do fine-grained diffing without relying on signals, proxies, or any other reactive primitives. they basically have the top-down react model but much faster and without the weird concepts like hooks and manual/wasteful dependency arrays.

my favorite one is ivi-js: https://github.com/localvoid/ivi

it's just 8% slower than the fastest / ugliest / imperative / unmaintainable vanilla js you can eventually arrive at if all you care about is winning benchmarks.

https://krausest.github.io/js-framework-benchmark/2025/table...