Honestly, I'm not too impressed by the React/ES6 ecosystem either. I've built a little toy app in it, but I'm not seeing the awesomeness that people claim is there. As for what to do now, it depends on what your goal is.
If you just want to get a webapp working, I suggest going with Angular 1.x. It isn't super cool and trendy, but it's well-documented and battle-tested. It's very popular with enterprise shops, which you could say are the ones who don't care about how trendy the framework is and just want to get stuff done. Compared to the React ecosystem, it's pretty all-in-one - most of the core functionality you could want is in the main libraries, and setting up add-ons is easy. You don't need 50 different accessories and half-baked languages just to get hello world working. Javascript ES2015 isn't perfect, but its warts are well-known and well-documented, and it's supported everywhere.
If you're really determined to learn React and build something in it, you need to back off of what you're working on now and try another route. Maybe do something non-programming for a day or two and come back to it. Try something simpler with fewer helper accessories, or try a different starter kit. Maybe try using Webpack to build it instead of whatever else you're using? It isn't the simplest, but once you learn the basics, you should have a better handle on how your code comes together into the final js that the browser actually runs.
If you just want to get a webapp working, I suggest going with Angular 1.x. It isn't super cool and trendy, but it's well-documented and battle-tested. It's very popular with enterprise shops, which you could say are the ones who don't care about how trendy the framework is and just want to get stuff done. Compared to the React ecosystem, it's pretty all-in-one - most of the core functionality you could want is in the main libraries, and setting up add-ons is easy. You don't need 50 different accessories and half-baked languages just to get hello world working. Javascript ES2015 isn't perfect, but its warts are well-known and well-documented, and it's supported everywhere.
If you're really determined to learn React and build something in it, you need to back off of what you're working on now and try another route. Maybe do something non-programming for a day or two and come back to it. Try something simpler with fewer helper accessories, or try a different starter kit. Maybe try using Webpack to build it instead of whatever else you're using? It isn't the simplest, but once you learn the basics, you should have a better handle on how your code comes together into the final js that the browser actually runs.