I've answered relevant questions to this conversation in here:
I also believe tools are not the answer for the simple reason there's no standard around how HTML or SVG or even SQL can be written in template literal tags ... anyone can bring in its own sugar, like @click in lit-html did, while ESX is about standardizing a syntax everyone can understand.
The root issue about not being ble to just add your tool to the equation is this: there is no standard in how people can write strings, and the fact they can put anything in a string is actually the strength of template literals tag based solutions, but it falls shortly in terms of advantages compared to the de-facto JSX standard. ESX wants to bring both world into syntax anyone can consume and understand, same way template literals tags do already, but every library in its own special way. Fragmentation is bad for standards adoptions, we all now that, which is why I don't understand this conversation, as it's focused on highlight and tools, while the issue is the inability to have a standard way to define, and understand, tree structures in ECMAScript, and literally nothing else.