You don't have to use 'this' at all in React. I've written about it here: https://medium.com/@baronmaximilianwilleford/react-without-t... I never use 'this', 'bind', 'apply', 'call', 'class', and only use 'new' to create React components. I find it much easier and more fun to work with React as a result. I hope other people would give it a try.
not a huge fan of the `new` keyword in js; it's difficult to mock and there are better options (Object.create/freeze e.g.)