I may be mistaken here, but I think that the main advantage of the virtual DOM is to avoid calling across the JavaScript-native boundary. Since calling browser APIs is inherently expensive, the virtual DOM improves performance by reducing the number of calls to these APIs and/or batching them together.
Similar techniques have been used in other types of programs where performance is critical - for instance, user mode networking and user-mode thread scheduling can be quicker than the kernel-mode equivalent because it reduces or eliminates expensive system calls.
Similar techniques have been used in other types of programs where performance is critical - for instance, user mode networking and user-mode thread scheduling can be quicker than the kernel-mode equivalent because it reduces or eliminates expensive system calls.