I've been doing something similar using Backbone and Ezel[1] (I first started using Rendr[2], but couldn't get into it): As the OP says, it can be a bit confusing to get your mind around. Particularly the routing; part of my intention was to use the "isomorphic" technique -- btw, as a mathematician, I really hate that this term is used...but I digress -- to create a SPA that falls back to a traditional multipage site if/when JavaScript is disabled. It was a bit of a hurdle, but ultimately proved possible.

I might give React a closer look, having read this.

[1] http://ezeljs.com/

[2] https://github.com/rendrjs/rendr