> in fact, I've heard that one of the criticisms of Django is that, in order to get to production quality, you essentially have to switch out every component of it with a third party.
This is not necessarily true. Everything in Django is production quality as you will see in several sites in the wild (including the very first Django sites).
No framework will give you the most optimal set of components for every possible scenario. In most cases Django components are swapped out for performance reasons, especially when they are high traffic sites. In other cases, it is due to the NIH syndrome where almost every component has been homegrown (perhaps trying to become more standalone).
This is not necessarily true. Everything in Django is production quality as you will see in several sites in the wild (including the very first Django sites).
No framework will give you the most optimal set of components for every possible scenario. In most cases Django components are swapped out for performance reasons, especially when they are high traffic sites. In other cases, it is due to the NIH syndrome where almost every component has been homegrown (perhaps trying to become more standalone).