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Why are declarative languages better for UI?

Because it provides I nice separation between the "static" parts of a program, the UI, and the dynamic parts, the data.

The first demo of this on the other hand, has html embedded in javascript strings. A program of any complexity written like this would quickly turn into a big ball of mud.

I'm somewhat skeptical of this separation of concerns

I'd encourage you to try it out:

http://jsfiddle.net/rniemeyer/LkqTU/

It's possible to turn any codebase into a big ball of mud. Declarative languages are just a tool, like object oriented languages are.

And arguably, if you choose a language based upon its ability to help you define what is "dynamic" vs. "static" you've made some mistakes.

>"And arguably, if you choose a language based upon its ability to help you define what is "dynamic" vs. "static" you've made some mistakes."

Please elaborate.

They're easier to read and code. Check out XAML for C#, it's dead simple. But one of their main problem is they advertised for too long (I remember waiting for ages) and we didn't get the 60 fps. It wasn't as fast as announced and painful to integrate.

I'd say check out knockoutjs instead, way simpler than xaml.

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