[jbooth]

I think the key distinction there is how unique is the site/project. Is it something that fits naturally in a CMS? Then for god's sake use a CMS. If it's something that doesn't fit naturally, it's just as much effort to figure out the hacks you did to make it fit as it is to figure out your from-scratch code.

[chrislomax]

Yes and No. How do you know that something that doesn't fit now won't fit on the next iteration?

Can you honestly say you haven't built a site before that you wish you had built differently? I know I have.

These regrets make us make better decisions in future and to that end I always plan for bigger.