jjm - I tried to do a plus/minus on each piece of the framework. I think I agree w/ you in spirit. I'm even using bits of backbone in my finished project, just not all of it. With backbone seemingly getting the lions share of the press lately, I wanted to show that there are other frameworks, and while incomplete, they excel in some areas that backbone does not.
Scott, I looked at you guys the other day, and I couldn't see what you did that launchrock and unbounce didn't, but for free.
LaunchRock adds the social validation thing. I'm not sold on their thinking there. (I'm using it to find my target market, which means I'd be ok if they were just able to track IF they shared, not how effective they were).
Unbounce has better reporting than launchrock, and some nice templates, but their social contest pages are smoke and mirrors. You can't determine if anyone shared w/ them either.
Both are free to try though. 50 signups on someone else's domain is simply useless, unless you're anticipating failure.