This is a very useful post -- unfortunately, it describes an all too common occurrence: treating a single example as gospel truth. I've gone ahead and added an explicit "There's More Than One Way To Do It" section to the FAQ.

http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/#FAQ-tim-toady

Edit: Also, for folks looking for useful patterns, I'd recommend scrolling through and viewing source on a few of the increasingly lengthy list of example apps:

http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/#examples

Pandora, Trajectory, and SeatGeek were added recently, and there are more that are waiting for a blurb, including Sky+ and GroupOn:

http://skyplustv.sky.com/tv-guide

http://www.groupon.com/now