Except, we're talking about Express here and not barebones Node.js. Express implies a web framework competing against all the techs you listed: Rails, Grails, Django....
You should compare Rails/Django to full-fledged frameworks such as Geddy/Tower/Locomotive/Meteor/Compound... Many of these frameworks are built on top of Express, leveraging it just like Rails/Sinatra leverage Rack.
That's why you should never criticise what you don't know! :)
Node.js error handling sucks, period.