same here, spent lots of time poking around, even tried svelte and react.js(heavily), and now firmly back to vue.js.
vue.js does not mix SSR with SPA into one, make it much simpler compare to what React.js is doing today, and it provides way more than alpine.js and htmx etc, it's the best one in practice for me now.
React has Meta behind it, Vue.js is a non profit project by individuals, very different, good news is that vue.js is good enough for serious projects nowadays and I especially like the fact that it does not mix SSR into SPA to make things complicated.
I think Vue.js "scales down" excellently. You can just load it via the cdn and write some widgets and go about your day.
In the past I've tried to make use of "microframeworks" like alpine.js and such but often found myself returning to Vue.js.