Technically I don't build web applications like RoR or Django. Rather I build out my front-end with HTML/CSS/JS and call REST services. That being said I have started using Clojure to build those rest services and as my processing layer for by back end system. I like it, for this use, it is very compact and succinct, what used to require reams of boilerplate in Java takes me a few lines of code in Clojure. MY personal opinion is that writing web apps in this fashion is more elegant due to it's simplification of the technology stack. I also like it because it allowed me to transition from Java to Clojure for services because my web UI was not tied up in implementation specific technologies such as JSP or JSF. I could have easily transitioned from Java to Python or Ruby if I wanted to go that way, having the UI completely decoupled from the back end technology stack affords developers a lot of flexibility.
I agree your approach does seem more elegant and more flexible, but what about in terms of productivity? How does productivity compare with Clojure as backend and using javascript alone to render the HTML compared to Django or RoR where there is a HTML rendering DSL available?
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