IIRC it has to do with backwards compatibility, but I believe that the property accessors have been there for quite a while so I don't know if it is even valid

IIRC it has to do with backwards compatibility, but I believe that the property accessors have been there for quite a while so I don't know if it is even valid for most of the browser targeted today. It may be one of those old best practices that is no longer relevant with the exception of people targeting older browsers.