'REAL' AJAX with Asp.Net (not Asp.Net AJAX) : Building a CRUD System

Am I the only one who feels guilty every time I throw an 'UpdatePanel' into my code? We all know Asp.Net AJAX is technically ajax, but it generally passes one the main advantage of using ajax in the first place. Sure ajax is slick for user interface, but where I feel it really helps is speed. Asp.Net AJAX is a great tool, but it sort of masks (nearly) complete postbacks as being asynchronous; which is extremely convenient for quick development, but does not really help in the realm of performance. This is showing how to use Asp.Net in concurrence with jQuery for some 'Real' ajax.