Tangential, but ever since browsers started to implement the behavior: if a select is selected and start typing, it automatically starts matching options, I don't mind them as much. It's a feature for power users and there are definitely cases where it doesn't apply (e.g. you don't know the options), but it's a big usability win.

Also, for what this is doing, I think comparing it to a <select> is wrong. It's so much more powerful and really shines (and is worth 50k of JS) in situations where you couldn't even use a <select>.