> "proven paradigms" is a ridiculous term by itself in software development, putting it in web development context just makes it dumber. If desktop apps are so good, then how come web apps are still around? There is a reason why people still prefer jQuery over many of those.

I'm not sure usage counts are an indicator of quality. I bet the majority of javascript developers use jQuery because it's what everyone else is using, similar to why they're using php for writing their apps.

I'm not saying that jQuery is bad, just that usage counts is often a bad indicator.