I've found quite the opposite. Ember docs are very clear, constantly being refined and tweaked, and the core devs are actually willing to take input to improve upon them.

We use this strategy also. In setupController functions, (of your routes), we typically run fetches and fill content of our controllers. Why does everyone get hung up on Ember-data?

How are ya'll caching your stuff? Sounds like all that is doing is just making fresh requests for every route.

The Controller. Then you can do a quick check to see if `someControllerForState.hasData()`.

We use a local storage method in browser and app data when running in phone gap

Your examples are incorrect. The Route's model is set as the content of the controller, so all you need to say is #each item in content. Your model is set as the "content" of your controller, so your model is not "nowhere to be found"

http://jsfiddle.net/sgterban/kDqBs/ - Example

You should use {{#each item in controller}}, otherwise you won't get things like sorting of filtering right. Yes, content is an underlying array, but controller may present it differently (filter out, sort, paginate etc.).