Judging by the response, it appears to not be basic knowledge. But, I'm glad to hear that you and others are taking a similar approach as I think it just makes a lot more sense as a concept.
I guess this is why frameworks like Rails compile your assets for you - it's a "silly not to do it" task, but not everyone knows about it.
"It is also possible to precompile your templates. This will result in a smaller required runtime library and significant savings from not having to compile the template in the browser. This can be especially important when working with mobile devices."
But nobody reads documentation... ;-)