Yep. I still use it for side one-off projects here and there. For me, there's just something so convenient about being able to make a html page that you can drop in a quick CDN link for jquery and not have to worry about compiling, webpack, create-react-app etc. I'll still use React when something is a larger project with a ton of moving parts, but otherwise I stick with jquery.
As for why I'm not using the native DOM api's...I could, but haven't gotten around to learning that syntax since I'm very used to jquery (being specific, if I want to do things that are more complicated than selecting an element + changing its properties, the native API is more complicated). jquery is just a nice default.
I hear you. Personally I think learning the native APIs isn't so bad once you take the plunge. They are easily memorized with practice. Imagine not needing to go for that CDN link (or depending on some 3p for your website to work correctly)
As for why I'm not using the native DOM api's...I could, but haven't gotten around to learning that syntax since I'm very used to jquery (being specific, if I want to do things that are more complicated than selecting an element + changing its properties, the native API is more complicated). jquery is just a nice default.