Good article, it was pleasant to read :)

Just FYI: Some things described here have recently changed significantly.

With "Dev client" you can now build your custom Expo Go with any native library you want.

Since SDK 42, WebRTC, Bluetooth, Firebase and a few other libs are supported in that custom managed workflow thanks to "config plugins".

Basically, Expo is trying to narrow down the gap between bare and managed workflow.

And some fun fact - Expo has recently greatly improved the ejecting process (and by the way renamed it to prebuilding), because their new EAS Build service heavily depends on that. Each managed build is ejected and then built like it was a bare workflow app.

Also, you can "prebuild"(eject) your app as many times as needed (e.g. when adding a native lib and building your client). And still use managed features.

You can read more on their blog https://blog.expo.io/

Mostly in posts like: SDK 42, Introducing Dev Clients, Expo Run commands.

They explained the whole plan in the two-part blogpost: https://blog.expo.io/expo-managed-workflow-in-2021-5b887bbf7dbb