For me, drupal is still saving lots of time in development. If you (or your client) thinks he knows EXACTLY what he wants, than do it from scratch and expect to

For me, drupal is still saving lots of time in development. If you (or your client) thinks he knows EXACTLY what he wants, than do it from scratch and expect to invest much more time (money). But I have come across enough clients that were pragmatic, and were able to understand that changing built-in feature X to make it a little different is not that crucial. They were able to live with the limitations imposed by built-in systems because they knew it saves a lot of money, and ultimately - these things are not the things that determine if a project succeeds or fails! In the real world of limited time and money, drupal is indispensable.