Nicolas Gallagher (Meta) details the evolution from React Native Web (RNW) to React Strict DOM (RSD). RNW's origin wasn't to run native apps on the web; it was to bring React Native's styling constraints and "proper encapsulation" to web development, solving the unpredictable styling issues he faced at Twitter.

React Strict DOM is the next phase. It provides a shared API that aligns with web standards. For web, it's a zero-overhead syntax: a Babel plugin "flattens" RSD components (like <html.div>) directly into standard HTML tags (<div>) and compiles styling to static CSS.

This approach gives web code the "option value" of running on native. The goal is to allow developers to write component libraries once. The majority of the code runs on both platforms, while platform-specific components (like VirtualizedList) become exceptions handled by RN's forking mechanism, not the default.