The select HTML element was used in the earlier versions of this plugin but most users prefer checkboxes when multiple selections are possible. The select HTML element is better only when single selection is used. Since, this interface has to support multiple selections I choose to use checkboxes. In order to conserve space I put the checkboxes in a hideable pane. I guess your application must need only the single selection select element and I can see where for the single selection case the interface would be nicer. However, several versions back I removed all of the code for the select HTML element since it was becoming a headache to keep both versions in sync. This plugin is designed to be generally applicable as such it would not be optimal for every specific application. Although this can be mitigated somewhat by making the plugin more and more configurable it does require more and more effort. More effort than I want to make in cases where the added configurability does not seem generally useful. It is basically a trade off between satisfying more users on the fringe and my time and effort. In my opinion in this case it would be a lot of work for no gain for the general user. I guess I am saying I am too lazy to do this unless more users request this feature.
