I don't see why this should be controversial, it's so easy to switch to Haml, Sass or jQuery when you need/want to. The defaults are there to get the uninitiate

I don't see why this should be controversial, it's so easy to switch to Haml, Sass or jQuery when you need/want to. The defaults are there to get the uninitiated off the ground as quickly as possible, and is in keeping with the 'rails way'. I, on the other hand, have my 'own way', and rails doesn't in any way prevent me from implementing that when I start a new rails project.