Go back to basics. Web applications and XHR have been around for ~20 years. Yes the latest framework or library in use today didn't exist but the basics are th

Go back to basics. Web applications and XHR have been around for ~20 years. Yes the latest framework or library in use today didn't exist but the basics are the same: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE are the calls to the server and you are using JS on the client. If you run into an issue with the framework or library in use, see if you can work around the issue with the basics. Inform your manager about the issue, a potential resolution but that the side effect is technical debt in the project that should be revisited later to see if the issue is resolved with a version/patch. Yeah its a crappy decision, make the boss make the decision, note it in the code and file the find-a-fix ticket for later. In general I really dislike frameworks that emit/transpile/compile into other base (Python/JS in your example) languages. Its like two pairs of handcuffs. A new feature/bug exists in the base and the base+1 (e.g. Django) takes time to include/resolve it and then base+2 (webpack/DRF could be in this category) takes even longer if they are even aware of it. Or it could be a bug in the base+1/base+2 framework/library itself. Eliminating unnecessary dependencies and sticking to basics helps a lot. I'm not saying ditch Django and write your own framework, just try to limit the libraries used on top of the framework.