It was other things than frameworks too — also databases, and (to some degree) programming languages. For example, I started with using only file based storage. Then I switched to Oracle — because I needed to learn Oracle better, beause of some contracting work I did, and then from Oracle to PostgreSQL. & I tested Dart (a programming language) too (and Angular-Dart).

Actually now in the end, I've found some frameworks that I like (love?) and ... without them, I'm afraid everything would instead have beeen a terrible mess. These frameworks help me structure the code and reduce my total amount of code: React.js, and Play Framework, and Nginx + some Lua (instead of doing everything in the app server).

My personal lesson is ... Do use frameworks but not the wrong ones :-) and it can take long to undo a use-the-wrong-stuff decision.