When I started doing Django projects back in 2007 I certainly found Django very cumbersome - the lack of features in the ORM, the clumsy template language, the terrible authentication system (User.get_profile and so on). I preferred Pylons by a mile (the Flask/Pyramid of its day).

Django in 2015 though pretty much does everything I need. I still have gripes but when you factor in extras like the Django Rest Framework it's still my go-to for new projects unless it's something completely unusual.