Especially considering Django powers Instagram and Pinterest's backends.

At some point, Python's creator Guido van Rossum also said "My personal favorite -- and I expect that that will remain a personal favorite for a long time -- is something named Django. ... I highly recommend it."

Personally, I use Django with REST Framework (https://www.django-rest-framework.org). I've enjoyed using it tremendously for the past few years.

One important feature Django lacks right now is asyncio support. There are plans to add it though (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django-developers/Kw...). Hopefully that happens soon.

Good point. I was specifically looking for "base-level" frameworks that focus on routing and responses (so are well-suited for API development) rather than full-stack solutions (e.g. FastAPI isn't there either). Just copy/pasted that from my notes -- as I said, FWIW.