I'm confused, every example is 100 times the code I would write using straight html... Is there a benefit I'm missing?
When you need this, you need it. When you don't, prefer static html.
Keep in mind, the folks who write developer documentation for things like this have had their head in this problem space for a long time. So there's less explanation of the "what" and "why", and examples tend to be more oriented to the "how".
He didn't said "static html". He said "straight html". Which I presume means "also factoring in plain JS code".