I've had a similar experience. For me, the most important realization was this: the moment I reached the point where I could set up really complex sites with v

I've had a similar experience. For me, the most important realization was this: the moment I reached the point where I could set up really complex sites with very little code, using carefully chosen and powerful/flexible modules, the moment I figured out how to make the whole database-as-configuration issue as painless as possible, and the moment I started automating things (drush, etc), was also the moment that I had become a developer competent enough to do all this better, cleaner and faster with frameworks that don't require me to click around and configure stuff. Drupal is deceptive, in a way, by allowing you to go quite far without writing code or understanding underlying structure. But at a certain point, the costs outweigh the benefits. I think a example is the Views module. If you're good enough to understand the complexity of building a view, you probably have the mindset of a programmer, and/or the capability to use some kinds of code-based queries. Perhaps the best audience for Drupal as a tool consists of people that are frustrated by Wordpress' limitations (or that of other full-blown CMS solutions), but aren't quite ready or interested in using frameworks as a starting point.