flask looks like a dream comparatively.

but. is there a middle ground?

i was a product manager-type on a (python) pylons pyramid project -- https://trypyramid.com/ -- "the start small, finish big, stay finished framework" -- the message sounds good.

seemed fine, but i wasn't a dev on it, and we still had plenty of moving parts for what was a relatively simple e-commerce cms (that, admittedly, had a lot of functionality).

what i really want is a straightjacket -- some framework that says, 'oh, you want to plug in a different templating engine? how about fuck you? will fuck you work for you?'

but i guess that doesn't earn many github stars.

if i had to pick one or recommend one with no other qualifiers, i'd pick sinatra. that way i could do it my way.