Agree, Rails 3 absorbing merbisms introduced flexibility to the existing conventions making it easy to stray from the opinionated stuff. Rails 3 was still Rails but definitely made it easier to get yourself into trouble. And definitely changes any Rails 2 developer would have to learn.

I’ve experimented with most of the alternative frameworks and micro-frameworks. I have a real fondness for Sinatra. I’m happy most modern languages have their own Sinatra but I’m sad that most modern languages lack their own Rails.