Eh... Don't blame your inexperience. I'm also new to Django but not to web dev, and it's been a pain the ass. I haven't been stuck with any Django aspects (great framework otherwise) but rather issues with the libraries.

In the end I think I will make it work, and robustly. So I don't want to diminish the work of all the open-source devs who have worked on those libraries; I count my lucky stars that they're available in the open and for free.

But it's been painful nonetheless, and I am shocked that a better and more streamlined dev experience is not available, especially in such a popular stack.