I don't doubt what you're saying, but in my opinion, if you can't write code outside of your chosen framework... you can't write code. It would be like calling

I don't doubt what you're saying, but in my opinion, if you can't write code outside of your chosen framework... you can't write code. It would be like calling yourself a mathematician because you passed 8th grade algebra. You learned some math tools, but you didn't learn math. (Not you specifically of course, the hypothetical "you") Parsing data is a very low barrier to entry. Likewise, a person that can write an ORM data model without understanding the basics of a database is a disaster waiting to happen. If you don't understand the primitives you're working with, you're hopeless when the abstractions you use inevitably break down.