Prior to Elm I spent 5 years building front end apps using ember.js(handlebars templates) and then JSX with React. From memory it took me about 2 days to get used to Elm's approach. Once you get used to have the full power of a programming language to build your view going back to using templates honestly feels painful by comparison. Aside from the power of having a full language available you also get the benefit of static typing. Refactoring your views with the same ease that you do with your normal code and with a compiler to watch your back is liberating. I wasn't aware how cautious I was with refactoring view components until I tried the alternative.
JSX is a language extension which desugars to JavaScript. It is not the same as 'going back to templates'.
> Refactoring your views with the same ease that you do with your normal code and with a compiler to watch your back is liberating
I have this experience with JSX (which I didn't have with string template libs), and I also don't see that an Elm equivalent like elmx would take anything away from that experience in Elm.
