Not at all, the author praises Backbone. The learning curve, busted syntax, and performance issues unfortunately ARE specific to Angular, that's the entire point of the article.
Backbone is as lightweight as a framework can get - to the point where one might call it a library. It's common for people who are anti-framework to embrace smaller frameworks like React and Backbone.
> The learning curve, busted syntax, and performance issues unfortunately ARE specific to Angular, that's the entire point of the article.
But they're really not. Ember has the same learning curve and performance issues that Angular has, and "busted syntax" is completely subjective.
