I would say that lines of code is not a useful metric. From a developer standpoint, what I care about is how much "surface" a library adds, and in how many places. The React API is relatively small, easy to understand, and confined to a single place - rendering my views.
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React has a better chance because it is a micro framework or component or just the V like you mentioned.
Typical evolution of new tech is monolithic to micro, frameworks to components/modules/libraries.
In the end micro frameworks or libraries allow more flexibility to change over time.
Always bet on the micro frameworks and libraries, they can be swapped more easily and typically don't create blocks in overall architecture/design.
React is quite large in terms of lines-of-code. I would refer to it as a mili-framework instead of a micro one :)
I would say that lines of code is not a useful metric. From a developer standpoint, what I care about is how much "surface" a library adds, and in how many places. The React API is relatively small, easy to understand, and confined to a single place - rendering my views.