Note that the weird direction is not final yet - Angular 2.0 is still a ways off, you don't actually have to use AtScript to build your applications (ES6, ES6 + Traceur annotations, CoffeeScript, Dart, AtScript should all work), and the funky HTML attribute syntax is still under debate because most browsers don't actually support .setAttribute() with bracketed attribute names.
Besides, 1.x works and will keep functioning fine for years to come. You won't be required to update or change your tech stack if 2.0 is ever released.
I'd defer looking around until 2.0 is actually released, 1.x will do until then.