It's just the first impression. React view code is not HTML in pure sense—it's a DSL for describing virtual DOM tree (that happens to look a lot like HTML for obvious reasons).
You won't regret taking a couple of hours to try to build something simple with it.
But then again, is the comparison between Angular and React even a valid one? After all, Angular is more or less MVC with a lot of functionality for resource routing, component building whereas React seems like a view templating library. So if I am not wrong, we are comparing a framework with a targeted library.
The weakness with Angular is not the view imo, but the $apply-cycle which can bog down even a modern browser with moderately sized data.
React basically eliminates the need for something like the apply cycle, because you just re-render from the top whenever something changes. React is the view layer, but its approach is different enough that you may restructure (and simplify) the rest of your app as a result.
You won't regret taking a couple of hours to try to build something simple with it.