>You can easily create a model that knows nothing about the view without Vuex/Redux.
Sure, but why not use the standard solution for the ecosystem.
As far as that linked Abramov post, it felt like a hedge to me. Basically he's saying you don't need redux to write a react app, which is a truism, then lists all the reasons why you should use redux.
Redux "code" is a simple library. But if you follow Abramov's architecture opinions that he only implies in the redux guide, you end up with a full highly scalable front-end framework architecture.
Plus vanilla react is non-deterministic with state. Redux solves this problem and that alone is worth the price of entry.
Writing vue/react code w/o flux is like putting your entire application code into the view layer of an MVC app.
You can easily create a model that knows nothing about the view without Vuex/Redux.