Echo JS 0.11.0

It's unfair to compare Backbone with Angular. Backbone it's just a small set of components that can be use/extended in order to satisfy your needs, that's what I actually like about Backbone. 

Try using Backbone with Marionette and a data binder like Stickit or Rivets, that's what you may need to reduce you boilerplate code.

I agree that you should be using a right tool for the right job. I use Backbone as main library in my work, so I definitely know it's advantages and limitations.

However, by just adding more libraries like Marionette, etc. only thing you are doing is moving the boilerplate to somewhere else and potentially (especially in the case of Marionette) completely exploding the size and complexity of your app.

I also agree that Backbone is not "complete" by itself, and using other libraries working with it would make the programmer write less code, and it also can increase (but not explode) the size of the app, but complexity ? This other libs are designed to work with Backbone, the programmer don't need to build adapters and things like this to use it, the complexity remains the same, I guess.