In huge number of cases you will have timestamps in the payload anyway, since most db records will have unredacted createdOn, updatedOn fields for display in the UI.
React is a pure abomination, and probably the worst thing that could happen to the web. Imagine Backbone with JSX, but w/o MVC, MVP or/and MVVM in mind. The amount of code that one needs to write even to handle simple registration form is the mind-blowing. Thanks to the lack of two-way binding support, when everything needs to be handled by hand, leading to the bloated codebase of copy-pasta of zillion of hooks. So, instead of focusing on biz logic, devs mostly end up writing scaffolding and functional logic.
Wrong, maintainer started conversations with complete rejection, and continued to coming up with new ideas why not to accept the PR. And maintainer started to drag politics into conversation, such as elitism.