I really do not approach the different features of 2.1 as a whole
"MVP" set of things: there's
- RequestFactory and ValueStore (I don't think ValueStore has any
real use besides RequestFactory, though I'd be happy to be proved
wrong) for a record-oriented client-server communication;
- Cell-based widgets for efficient data-backed lists, trees and
tables
- PlaceController as typed layer over History (objects rather than
strings, even though it's not yet plumbed to History, which at least
proves it can be used without it)
- ActivityManager as an "application controller" (to use the term
from the GWT tutorials) on top of PlaceController
- and on top of that, GWT provides some base activities plumbed with
RequestFactory
- and finally, though it's not documented at all, EditorSupport which
works with UiBinder in a view to generate "data-binding code" (as far
as I understood)
You're free to use any of them independently of the others.