You can use PhantomJS as the backend on a Selenium script, and this news clearly demonstrates the utility of a higher-level API than using PhantomJS directly. I

You can use PhantomJS as the backend on a Selenium script, and this news clearly demonstrates the utility of a higher-level API than using PhantomJS directly. If your tests are in Selenium, changing backends is generally a small matter. I started writing in Selenium instead of CasperJS (a PhantomJS frontend) because PhantomJS experienced intermittent bugs on the page I was trying to access. I think you're right that "real browsers" are still much more reliable for complex use cases, but the low profile of PhantomJS is definitely nice when it works.