I think if you find rails to be too hard you ought to be looking for some hosted solution to do what you want or just pay somebody else to do it.
For example, for my blog, I didn't use WordPress because it's too bloated -- it comes with jQuery, widgets support, themes etc etc. All I needed was a way to generate articles. So I used node.js-based Metalsmith[1] and it does just enough without getting in the way.
I've never built an public-facing app but that's kinda the point of it why I want to do it. Hiring someone else and miss out on all the fun? ;)