I agree. Using an IDE because it does a lot of the grunt work for me doesn't imply that I've forgotten how or was never capable of doing it manually, only that I have other things to do with my time. I know how to use a broom and vacuum... but I prefer to let my Roomba do it for me.

I do use the Kendo MVC products. Like several people have already said, their documentation is sparse and their examples are either too simple or cluttered with a lot of stuff that isn't relevant to what they are trying to show. Forum support is also less than stellar. They seem to devote their dev money to adding new features rather than improving the existing ones. Having said that, I've worked with other products too... they all seem to have shortcomings somewhere. We have a substantial investment w/ Telerik and must maintain licensing to support older projects... so I keep working w/ Kendo on new projects too. Someone else already said all of these control suites seem to be pretty good, as long as you stay within their box... if you're not already committed to Kendo, then I would look at others and use whatever is closest to what you need... the more you try to alter functionality, the more problematic it will get.