https://github.com/rackt/react-router/wiki/Announcements#wha...
One of the exciting things about React, and Node.js more generally, is how quickly it is moving. This usually means that there are sharp edges and rough patches and that's been my experience so far. I'll take that any day over a backwater that gets no attention.
I am going to spend some time with react-router, since it looks like the one that is gaining the most traction. To my comment above, they do support nested views, which appears to solve the layout issue for me.