> when creating web applications, starting from scratch or from a minimal base is massively slower

Because every web app is the same CRUD app, right?

Things evolved the last years, I build you any app as fast and create more maintainable code with my stack which consists of small libs than any Rails dev. Don't forget that also a lot of work moved to the front-end, so your daddy's Rails won't help you on that anymore. Web apps are not developed like ten years ago.