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Or even if you ditch the SQL database entirely and use Elasticsearch or some weird custom back-end.

And then (with elastic) why you will use a synchronous web framework ;)

Synchronous web frameworks have been powering some of the largest websites on the internet for decades.

That said, Django is actively working toward async views and ORM. It's happening.

In fact, it was just released a few days ago.

Then you still need to upgrade Django.. (had seen so many sprint points spent on it.. :/)