3rd generation full stack web frameworks (django, rails, etc) are optimized for 6 month happiness, not 6 hour happiness
They take longer to get set up, but as your project grows the incremental work to "change one small thing" stays relatively constant, whereas coded from scratch php or lightweight frameworks tend to have complexity of a change that is exponential with the number of lines of code.
It's a question whether the investment is worth it for what you're trying to do. Sometimes, quite reasonably, the answer is no.
I've got my django routine to the point where it takes me about 30-45 minutes to spin up a new stack that I'd be happy to code on for years -- to me that's a relatively minor investment for huge rewards.
They take longer to get set up, but as your project grows the incremental work to "change one small thing" stays relatively constant, whereas coded from scratch php or lightweight frameworks tend to have complexity of a change that is exponential with the number of lines of code.
It's a question whether the investment is worth it for what you're trying to do. Sometimes, quite reasonably, the answer is no.
I've got my django routine to the point where it takes me about 30-45 minutes to spin up a new stack that I'd be happy to code on for years -- to me that's a relatively minor investment for huge rewards.