"Crusty" is just another way of saying, "I've actually used it for a real application before, or at least know someone first-hand who's used it in production".
When something is early in the HN hype cycle, all anyone knows is blog posts and "hello world" experiments. So it's awesome. Once you use something for a real project, you inevitably run into real-world issues or limitations. So it sucks. And you chase the dragon toward the next newly-hyped thing.
In all seriousness, though... sheesh. Django isn't even a decade old yet. Rails is older, and Sinatra and its clones are barely any younger. There really haven't been any revolutionary ideas in MVC frameworks this decade.
When something is early in the HN hype cycle, all anyone knows is blog posts and "hello world" experiments. So it's awesome. Once you use something for a real project, you inevitably run into real-world issues or limitations. So it sucks. And you chase the dragon toward the next newly-hyped thing.
In all seriousness, though... sheesh. Django isn't even a decade old yet. Rails is older, and Sinatra and its clones are barely any younger. There really haven't been any revolutionary ideas in MVC frameworks this decade.