This is a question of taste really. Do you favour continuous improvement or stability? Personally I prefer the continuous refinement approach that rails takes. It's definitely not for everyone though.
With a mindset of today's leading edge "way" being tomorrow's legacy.. one is creating technical debt that will be abandoned on older versions without extensive updates.
A black and white view on a framework being opinionated definitely costs more developer hours in some ways (which it could save up front).
I want to be extremely careful to not go near any religious debates about frameworks, or as you put it very well, preferences.
There is no perfect or ideal tool. Having open enough conversations about the tools we use and the reality we sometimes face without trying to be apologists or explain it away is essential.
I do wonder if many people have yet to have a relationship with a codebase they started as the leading edge, which stays stuck on an old release that becomes more and more expensive to upgrade. Does one really end up ahead in that case having to repay technical debt caused by the philosophy of a framework?
Maybe there's a finer line that can be drawn between the fantastic benefits of a framework that are not likely to change, and a way to work in approaches that may come and go?
Like any framework, it will have mature whether it likes it or not, I just hope it's for the better like everyone.
