We started our project in Angular last year, and the updates are great. It feels like a proper framework a la Ruby on Rails or Django where as with React and Elm and other options it would have been more ad-hoc.
I have a theory that the developers who like Angular have a background in dynamic web frameworks. We're used to having an opinionated structure.
Throwing in code that goes against the opinion leads to pain but if you work with it you can create a lot of functionality quickly.
My background is Rails, Django and AngularJS. I've worked with everything that came before Angular/React (MooTools, Ember, Backbone) and you're right, I like the idea of an opinionated framework that provides enough tools to get up and running and to maintain for the next few years (at least).
This is why I liked Elm as well because it bakes in a particular structure and adds static typing.
The other advantage is if you're hiring freelancing. From personal experience, anything that was custom and less opinionated cost more billable hours. Dealing with a framework like Laravel, Django, Rails cut costs in a noticeable way and the remaining work was actual hard problems to solve.