React supports rendering to HTML ahead of time (SSR) which doesn't need any client-side javascript, and this is a prominent feature of most frameworks using React. This feature of React was one of its major innovations over many other front-end frameworks of the time.
Literally not one person said XSLT can't do it. But in case you missed it somebody did said React can't do it and so XSLT is better.
> build step with React and webpack and javascript absolutely required on the client-side
This was a false statement.
both XSLT and React can be used for this except React can additionally do a bunch of other stuff that does use JS and that XSLT can't do.
> React supports rendering to HTML ahead of time (SSR)...
So does XSLT?