>at WORST look like this using promises: http://paste.ofcode.org/Nx2infQQ2aESNxxiwJC7cN

I'm sorry but I can't see how it is good-looking code. In my opinion this piece should look like this:

    var dbResource = fetchDbResource(query);
    var serviceResponse = callSomeAsyncService();
    var otherService = callSomeOtherAsyncService();