[jaunkst]

Nice write up. I too have evaluated almost every MV* framework. I started with knockout a few years back and extended it to fit the mvc pattern. Eventually I went all in with angular and have found it ideal for a few reasons, one which you mentioned; it's decoupling from a full stack. I currently have built rails application templates to generate an ideal angular full stack, and also rake tasks to compile the code base into Cordova mobile builds. I can say that without a doubt there is no going back. Complete decoupling of the client and server is the Golden goose. As far as being more meteor like it's pretty easy to spin up a websocket layer for the client and server. I personally think a Swiss army knife is a good representation of angular due to its flexibility to integrate with existing stacks. One could in theory slowly replace the entire front-end of any stack.