The big benefit I see to using jQuery (apart from the ubiquity) is that the jQuery is very cross browser compliant. If I write a line of code in jQuery, there's a very strong chance that I don't need to hack in some shitty code in order to get it working in Version Old of XYZ Browser (read: IE). I'm sure people can come up with examples where I'm wrong - I'm not saying jQuery is the magic bullet, but it does make life a lot easier.
This post has been edited by e_i_pi: 31 January 2014 - 05:29 AM