> Flutter doesn't do what I feel React Native does best, rendering down to native components for Android and iOS
Well of course it doesn't do that, they explicitly avoided it. And it's as you said, to make apps look and behave the same on all platforms. But that doesn't stop you from using their "Material" components on android and "Cupertino" components on iOS.
yes! And for those who have struggled with getting RecyclerView to work as expected, or with changing a text typeface in an action bar on some older android version, or felt that the Fragment plus ViewPager routine was a little more complicated than they'd hoped, in short for those who are looking for some different way to organize the UI and display logic, Flutter is an interesting alternative.
Well of course it doesn't do that, they explicitly avoided it. And it's as you said, to make apps look and behave the same on all platforms. But that doesn't stop you from using their "Material" components on android and "Cupertino" components on iOS.