"The above is valid Clojure code, not another language whose syntax you have to learn or separate compiler to use."

Even though this is a fair point, the comparison between the Jade solution and the Clojure one is invalid. Jade was conceived as a whitespace-significant language. Its biggest benefit over plain HTML (or HTML-based template engines like Moustache) is the usage of indentation to determine hierarchies.

The comparison would be more valid with something like http://domo-js.com, which is solving the exact same problem: using a single language (JS) for markup production – and even replacing CSS.