> I originally started a project of mine in Django only to find out that the ORM couldn’t handle the types of queries that I needed to perform.
I dont believe that , since you can do your own queries with Django , even in RAW sql.
> Not only that, but the ORM in Django forces it’s own database conventions on developers.
That's not true , you can use an old database that has nothing to do with django and still get a full integration with the ORM.
Django is not a CMS with plugins. It is a mvc framework that helps you begin really fast. While there are a few things that seems to make customisation a bit difficult, (auth with email instead of username ), there is always a simple solution to every problem if one digs a bit , but it requieres to understand how the framework works , like any other framework.