I feel much the same way with node and angular js set-up – especially yeoman. It is one thing to know JavaScript and I know it very well it is another completely to understand all the components of a node and angular set-up. There are a lot of people that believe it is “simpler” but I disagree. Not only do you have node, express, mongo but also grunt, angular, sass and the list goes on of technologies. Which is essentially what you end up with any website/app but having it all automated from the beginning without knowledge of all these technologies definitely makes php and good ole fashion html/css seem like a cake walk. Though as a website grows including all these technologies makes more and sense so it is is smart to include them right from the get go although as you pointed out it makes things seemingly more complex – much more complex imo in comparison to “older” set-ups. I enjoy reading how node is so easy to use, it is for simple “hello world” type apps but applying all those technologies to any real world requirements seems to me like a daunting pain in the arse. Not to mention finding hosting, continuous integration set-up with build scripts for all that grunt, sass, etc deploy time magic/compiling it just seems so damn complex when comparing it to the mainstream technologies of five or ten years ago. The whole mean thing I do buy into as a replacement for lamp but it is without doubt more complex I think and much of that is as you point out the lack of normalization and robust frameworks for higher level tasks.