New React Native iOS app size over 500 MB - in release mode

Question

I created a new React Native app using the CLI with the boilerplate template. The resulting iOS app size in release mode is unexpectedly large: 511.9 MB. Normally I would expect a new React Native app to be less than 10 MB. This large app size seems to be a recent change. What am I not considering? Thanks in advance!

Steps taken:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli
npx react-native@latest init TestProject
Open /ios/TestProject.xcworkspace in Xcode
Go to Test Project > Edit Scheme
Change build configuration to Release and uncheck Debug Executable
Close popup window
Push run button to run the app on my connected device
On the iPhone, check Settings > General > iPhone Storage
The newly installed app shows that it is using 511.9 MB of space

Other steps I tried:

In XCode, click Product > Archive.
In the Organizer window, right-click the app and click Show in Finder
The resulting app size on the file system is 544.8 MB

My environment:

macOS: Ventura 13.2.1
Xcode: 14.2 (14C18)
Node: 18.15.0
Ruby: 2.7.6p219

Project package.json (from the boilerplate template)

{
  "name": "TestProject",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "android": "react-native run-android",
    "ios": "react-native run-ios",
    "lint": "eslint .",
    "start": "react-native start",
    "test": "jest"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "18.2.0",
    "react-native": "0.71.4"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@babel/core": "^7.20.0",
    "@babel/preset-env": "^7.20.0",
    "@babel/runtime": "^7.20.0",
    "@react-native-community/eslint-config": "^3.2.0",
    "@tsconfig/react-native": "^2.0.2",
    "@types/jest": "^29.2.1",
    "@types/react": "^18.0.24",
    "@types/react-test-renderer": "^18.0.0",
    "babel-jest": "^29.2.1",
    "eslint": "^8.19.0",
    "jest": "^29.2.1",
    "metro-react-native-babel-preset": "0.73.8",
    "prettier": "^2.4.1",
    "react-test-renderer": "18.2.0",
    "typescript": "4.8.4"
  },
  "jest": {
    "preset": "react-native"
  }
}

in the release mode, have you enabled bit code while running/creating the build? What is the size of the build when debug mode is enabled? — Gavara.Suneel, Mar 15 '23 at 05:13
May be this solution would help you in the release mode(which suggests to enable bit code) `https://stackoverflow.com/a/68661895/8988448` — Gavara.Suneel, Mar 15 '23 at 05:45
@Gavara.Suneel After enabling bitcode, then running Archive, the archive fails and shows this error: libCocoaAsyncSocket.a(GCDAsyncSocket.o)' does not contain bitcode. You must rebuild it with bitcode enabled (Xcode setting ENABLE_BITCODE), obtain an updated library from the vendor, or disable bitcode for this target. — Anthony Tietjen, Mar 15 '23 at 05:57
This means that `libCocoaAsyncSocket.a` was not compiled with bit code. Could you clean & build again? — Gavara.Suneel, Mar 15 '23 at 06:10

New React Native iOS app size over 500 MB - in release mode

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