I love clean code, the less code I have, the cleaner it is. Code can be written in millions of ways, XAML is more restrictive. XAML is good at cutting down code, when appropriate of course. If I can put something in XAML, I'll do it. Tools can read XAML and do stuff with it. Much less with code. Tools and frameworks handling XAML will evolve and get better, doing more and better work with existing XAML. Can't say that about code. The more XAML evolves, the more we'll be able to declaratively define our applications.
For me, using XAML is like using LINQ. If I can write a one line statement that is easy to read and let a framework decide the best way to implement what I want, I feel good. I definitely try, as much as I can, to use declarations of what I want instead of hardcoding how I want it to be done. F# is another good example of this paradigm.