[Guillaume86]

I think it's dismissed because it is "just" a view/model binding library IMO as opposed to "full" MVC frameworks (with routing etc).

Personal opinion: I used knockout before switching to Angular, I woudn't switch back, why bother with observables when you can just use plain JS?

[curveship]

Since you asked, from my experience, there is one very good reason for KO-style functional observables rather than plain JS: immediate naming errors. If I type obj.prop when I should have typed obj.Prop, it simply returns undefined. But if I said obj.prop(), it excepts. This means that naming errors are diagnosed right at the site and immediately. I've found this a significant advantage to KO-style observables, particularly when refactoring code.

[Guillaume86]

Naming conventions is usually enough for me. Not having to wrap every declaration/get/set (with Ajax data in particular) still outweight this little side effect IMO.