Summary:

Fixes #57123.

@react-native/babel-preset enables @babel/plugin-transform-runtime with helpers: true but, unless a runtime version is explicitly passed via enableBabelRuntime, it doesn't set the plugin's version option — so it defaults to 7.0.0. @babel/plugin-transform-runtime only imports a helper from @babel/runtime if that helper existed at the configured version; anything added after 7.0.0 is inlined into every module instead.

The most visible victim is interopRequireWildcard, which Babel injects for every import * as X from '...' (e.g. import * as React from 'react'). Its modern (WeakMap-cached) form was added after 7.0.0, so today it is duplicated into every file that uses a namespace import — while sibling helpers like interopRequireDefault (unchanged since 7.0.0) are correctly imported once. This needlessly increases bundle size.

When a version isn't explicitly provided, this resolves the installed @babel/runtime version (require('@babel/runtime/package.json').version, with the same MODULE_NOT_FOUND try/catch + fallback used by babel-preset-expo) and passes it to transform-runtime, so all helpers available in that runtime — interopRequireWildcard and other post-7.0.0 helpers like callSuper/wrapRegExp — are imported from @babel/runtime and deduplicated instead of inlined.

Changelog:

[GENERAL] [FIXED] - Import the interopRequireWildcard Babel helper from @babel/runtime instead of inlining it into every module

Test Plan:

yarn jest packages/react-native-babel-preset — 50 passed.

• Regenerated the transform snapshot fixtures; the diff is contained to helper deduplication (inlined interopRequireWildcard / createForOfIteratorHelperLoose / callSuper / wrapRegExp / etc. replaced with @babel/runtime imports — net fewer lines).
• The existing "produces parseable JavaScript output" checks still pass for every profile.
• Added a focused regression test asserting that import * as React results in an imported interopRequireWildcard (not an inlined function _interopRequireWildcard).

Before (per module):

var _react = _interopRequireWildcard(require("react"));
function _interopRequireWildcard(e, t) { /* …inlined in every file… */ }

After:

var _interopRequireWildcard = require("@babel/runtime/helpers/interopRequireWildcard").default;
var _react = _interopRequireWildcard(require("react"));