First, it allows React learners to set up an environment without having to learn Webpack and Babel first. Prior to that, most tutorials would waste multiple pages on "Before you can do anything else, here's how to set up a Webpack+Babel config..."
Second, it allows experienced React devs to spin up a project without having to do all the configuration work (or copy and paste it from somewhere). It also provides good defaults for build output, lints for common mistakes, and makes it really easy to get future build improvements just by updating a single `react-scripts` dependency.
Third, it also acts as a common starting point for instructions and tutorials. For example, I wrote a blog post a while back on using the Cesium.js 3D globe library with Webpack and React ( http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/03/declarative-earth-p... ), and I was able to start by just saying "Create a CRA project, eject, and modify these two config values".
First, it allows React learners to set up an environment without having to learn Webpack and Babel first. Prior to that, most tutorials would waste multiple pages on "Before you can do anything else, here's how to set up a Webpack+Babel config..."
Second, it allows experienced React devs to spin up a project without having to do all the configuration work (or copy and paste it from somewhere). It also provides good defaults for build output, lints for common mistakes, and makes it really easy to get future build improvements just by updating a single `react-scripts` dependency.
Third, it also acts as a common starting point for instructions and tutorials. For example, I wrote a blog post a while back on using the Cesium.js 3D globe library with Webpack and React ( http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/03/declarative-earth-p... ), and I was able to start by just saying "Create a CRA project, eject, and modify these two config values".