It really depends on the size of the project. Having used CodeIgniter for a few projects, and Spring extensively for 2-3 years, there were projects where I really appreciated CodeIgniter - basically self-contained CRUD apps with a bit of originality layered on top - but other times where the CI approach would have led to a lot of pain, as in multi-layered applications that relied on legacy integrations.

I don't think it's unreasonable to prefer the simpler projects that the smaller frameworks are a good fit for, of course! Sometimes though the project is big enough that something like Spring is going to save you time and headaches in the medium and long run.