Why can't I import React as "react"?

Question

Problem described here too, but the response was not elaborative React can't be found

import React from 'react' <- I know this statement is correct

Since "React" is a default export and not a named export, shouldn't this statement work too:

import react from 'react'

I know React.createElement() will be called in future, but why isn't react.createElement() correct? After all, the word "React" is just a name to refer to 'react' module.