I realize that templates are a popular choice for many, but I view them as an unneccesary layer of indirection. Sort of like printing out an email, hand writing a response, and scanning it back in as a reply. Once your markup has been converted to a document object model, why not embrace it?
Using a bunch of calls to appendChild() and setAttribute() results in code that is difficult to read, because it's so low-level. You can't "see" the generated HTML, just like in assembly you can't really "see" the code structure.
Whereas using templates lets you "see" your HTML, with an easy-to-understand structure. So it's the natural, default choice for ease-of-use and maintenance.
Myself, I much prefer imperative.