Scaffolds are a dead end. Learn to work without them as quickly as possible. Idiomatic modern Rails code is simple and lightweight and doesn't require boilerplate.
The full scaffolds yes, but the generators are really nice. Like so many things in programming, the real value is for those that don't need it though. Yes, I could cd into the models directory and create the test file and then jump out and create a matching one under app. Or "rails g model User name:string"
The scaffold boilerplate did a lot of extra work, but didn't seem to overstep its bounds with extra code too much. Does Rails encourage me to eventually complexify the application's routes and methods to a point that the scaffold won't make any sense at all?
It's not so much 'any sense' as it is that you aren't always going to need all 7 basic routes/actions, and by that point, it's overkill, and possibly a security hazard.
So does idiomatic modern rails not use generators? I believe the way to begin a new rails project is with the command "rails new {insert project name} ", which umm....generates a ton of boilerplate code.
He didn't say anything about generators, just boilerplate, which is what scaffolding does. Most other generators are quick, easy and don't generate boilerplate.
There's a bit of Rails terminology that you'll need to understand in order to grok what's going on here. Rails has two distinct commands: generate and scaffold. Generators create files with very basic contents. The scaffold command generates files with contents that fit a "typical" use case. Scaffolds aren't used much once you know what you're doing.