I agree with you on the comment about abstractions, but I think I would rather have Rails with esoteric code than something less "conventional" with esoteric code.
yeah, esoteric is bad, whether Rails or others. But that's just my impression with Rails, and I'm much more comfortable using other less magical libraries. I guess Ruby is just too good at making abstractions, and I tend to believe that 'making and using abstractions feel great and productive, unless it's made by others'