I’m mostly web/backend so not deep in iOS, but SwiftUI does look like yet another case of abstracting away control in the name of “ease.” Same pattern with React: move logic to declarative bindings, then spend hours debugging state sync and lifecycle quirks.

UIKit with didSet {} or NotificationCenter might be verbose, but at least you can see what’s going on. SwiftUI’s “magic” feels like trading simplicity for opacity.

And yeah, Interface Builder, VB, even Delphi gave visual control without hiding everything. Declarative UIs sound elegant until you need to trace why a view is re-rendering 7 times in a scroll.