It's funny; when D3 was brand new it was selections and joins that were the big new unique feature, the thing that allowed the magic for D3. It's interesting to hear they're still important but that you'd de-emphasize them a bit in favor of other D3 features.
I've used React and D3 a lot lately and while I do use React for DOM rendering - I still think D3's built in DOM manipulation/rendering is better at this specific task. This is especially true when dealing with animations and complex items like axes.
