http://blog.garstasio.com/you-dont-need-jquery/why-not/
Using the native dom api often results in (for me much too) verbose syntax. On the other hand performance can be better:
http://www.sitepoint.com/jquery-vs-raw-javascript-1-dom-forms/
In the original article some light weight libraries are named, could be interesting also.
Crockford in 2012: "jQuery is great. jQuery is a library that runs on top of the Document Object Model which is the API that the browser provides to JavaScript. The Document Object Model is terrible. It is one of the worst APIs I ever imagined. JavaScript is such a powerful language that a relatively small library can turn the DOM into something that’s useful. jQuery does that. YUI from Yahoo! I think doesn’t even do a better job by doing the same thing. My advice to anybody is: use one of these libraries. Don’t ever try to talk to the Document Object Model yourself because it’s just pain and misery. But using a good library it becomes something that is pleasant and productive."