I've done this several times. I have a sample repo that demonstrates a react application running as a suitelet with a restlet backend for the API. This repo is pretty old, but you should still be able to build it and deploy it manually. I wouldn't try following the installation instructions in the readme. I'm not sure they'll work today.
https://github.com/datatek-software/netsuite-react-order-entry
Also, the bundle mentioned isn't available. Someone else asked for this last week. I'll see if I can redo that bundle this weekend so this demo is very easy to install.
I worked for a NetSuite partner that used this model for mobile interfaces for warehouse operations.
The react/suitelet model works really well.