React.forwardRef is already possible without it, so what's the use of it?

I'm confused on the point of React.forwardRef. As explained in its documentation, I understand that its main use is for a Parent Component to gain access to DOM elements of the Child Component. But I can already do that without even having to use it.

Here is a code example that you can plug into CodeSandbox and see that it works:

import React, {useRef, useEffect} from "react";
import "./styles.css";

const ChildComponent = (props) => {

  useEffect( ()=> {
    props.callbackFunction()
  })

  return(
    <div ref={props.fRef}>
      {"hello"}
    </div>
  )
}


export default function App() {
  const callbackFunction = () => {
    console.log("The parent is now holding the forwarded ref to the child div: ")
    console.log(forwardedRef)
  }

  const forwardedRef = useRef(null)

  return (
    <div className="App">
      <h1>Hello CodeSandbox</h1>
      <ChildComponent name="gravy" callbackFunction={callbackFunction} fRef={forwardedRef}/>
    </div>
  );
}

Or here's the embed of this example. Honestly, I'm kind of new to this and I don't know exactly how embeds work and whether someone fiddling with the embed changes my original Sandbox or not, so I was hesitant to put it. But here it is. Example Forwarding Ref

In the example, the parent App() component successfully passes a ref to the child which the child attaches to its rendered div. After it renders, it calls a callback function to the parent. The parent then does a console log where it proves that its forwarded ref now has a hold of the child's div. And this is all done without React.forwardRef.

So what then is the use for React.forwardRef?

You're absolutely right that you can do what you've described. The downside is that you're forced to expose an API (ie: the fRef prop) for it to work. Not a huge deal if you're a solo developer building an app, but it can be more problematic eg. if you're maintaining an open-source library with a public API.

In that case, consumers of the library won't have access to the internals of a component, meaning you'd have to expose it for them somehow. You could simply do what you're suggesting in your example and add a named prop. In fact, that's what libraries did before React 16.3. Not a huge deal, but you'd have to document it so people know how to use it. Ideally, you'd also want some kind of standard that everyone used so it wasn't confusing (many libraries used the innerRef naming convention), but there'd have to be some consensus around that. So all doable, but perhaps not the ideal solution.

Using forwardRef, passing a ref to a component just works as expected. The ref prop is already standardized in React, so you don't need to go look at docs to figure out how to pass the ref down or how it works. However, the approach you describe is totally fine and if it meets your needs, by all means go with that.