Debugging of generated code has gotten leaps and bounds better in the past few years though.

Have you tried to use source maps to help debugging? Plenty of compile-to-JavaScript languages support source maps, and even some CSS frameworks. Building complex/large apps without a compiler and tools is really difficult. GWT, Closure, TypeScript, Dart are all efforts to help developers build more interesting apps that scale. Building/compiling is just a natural step in the process, and source maps are a natural output of that process.