Is Next.js still developer-friendly?

Next.js has evolved from a simple, developer-friendly React framework into a more complex tool that divides the developer community. While it excels at solving hard problems like SSR, routing, and performance optimization, it now comes with increased complexity, frequent breaking changes, and debugging challenges. The framework works well for content-heavy applications and teams with React expertise, but may be overkill for simple SPAs. The author argues that Next.js remains powerful but requires deeper knowledge to use effectively, making the trade-off between productivity gains and complexity tax a key consideration for development teams.