Wilgosz's framing of a recurring Rails pain point: it took years for Rails to let developers build API-only apps with components like views or persistence disabled, and even then those components still need to be installed. Because Active Record, Active Support, and other pieces rely on Ruby monkey patches, replacing them wholesale (e.g. swapping Active Record, skipping Active Support, or using a custom router) is extremely difficult. Presented in contrast to Hanami's modular, opt-in architecture.