[generalk]

  > Working against Rails, or any framework, is definitely 
  > going to cause pain.

There is a huge difference between working "against" a framework and working outside, or better yet alongside of it.

You want a Service layer that abstracts logic from database commands? You can absolutely do that while still taking advantage of the entirety of Rails. Your controllers and views are instantiating your objects and not ActiveRecord objects, but that's not a crime.