I've been using option 1. (without React) to leverage d3's functionality on the server side, outputting templated SVGs after using a layout function to create transformations scalings etc. on the data. I've taken this approach on a few project over the last year and am confident it's a pretty good way forward, mirroring as it does the approach d3 takes for pie charts, treemaps and so on.

A simple example; the svg elements on this page https://ig.ft.com/sites/brexit-polling/