Poorly designed code is possible with any language. Was it unmaintainable because of something fundamental to css in js?
var benchmark = function() {
app.todos.reset();
var s = [];var i=0; while (i<1000) {s.push({title:'foo'});i++};
var t = performance.now();
app.todos.reset(s);
return performance.now() - t;
}
Backbone: (http://todomvc.com/architecture-examples/backbone/) >>benchmark()
>>667.2439999965718
Exoskeleton: http://todomvc.com/labs/architecture-examples/exoskeleton/ >>benchmark()
>>226.4119999963441
It's worth mentioning that Backbone has a couple pull requests open that is meant to address this.