As someone who started with Rails in 2010, rode the JS/Node hype train for 5 years, and now working with Rails again:
I was one of those guys that blamed Rails hard for encouraging bad code. But now that I'm a much better software developer, I've discovered Rails is actually fantastic for writing highly maintainable code. This is thanks to several things:
[A] Standard patterns. Yes, "The Rails Way" may seem to encourage bad code at first glance. But that's because it doesn't hand-hold you in your software design decisions. It's a solid foundation that 1. Takes care of the most common stuff so you don't have to reinvent the same crap over and over again, and 2. Leaves room to extend with an architecture (in plain old Ruby code) that fits your app's specific needs.
[B] Testing. A lot of people opt to use Rspec, but Rails's built-in testing is actually really great. My absolute favorite is their "Fast Integration Tests", which lets you write a few lines of code to test a big chunk of your app in a single test case.
[C] Ruby. Yes, it's actually a good language. But man, is it a double-edge sword. Used well, you can write some of the most simple, elegant, and maintainable code in your career, while only mildly pushing the boundaries of The Rails Way.
[D] Everything your app needs. So much stuff is built-in, and stays out of your way until you need it. And the fewer gems you need to install, the more maintainable your code tends to be.
Indeed, Rails is not legacy at all. Well, maybe if you think monoliths are legacy :) But it keeps up with the good trends. Version 5 introduced webpack, so now you can build your fancy JS frontends... without configuring webpack! Or be like me and only use JS as a last resort :)
To be honest, the only framework I can see doing better than Rails is Phoenix. At the moment it doesn't have everything Rails has to offer, but it does have (IMO) a superior foundation that has great potential to supersede. Until then though, I'll keep pumping out projects using the best tool on the market.
I was one of those guys that blamed Rails hard for encouraging bad code. But now that I'm a much better software developer, I've discovered Rails is actually fantastic for writing highly maintainable code. This is thanks to several things:
[A] Standard patterns. Yes, "The Rails Way" may seem to encourage bad code at first glance. But that's because it doesn't hand-hold you in your software design decisions. It's a solid foundation that 1. Takes care of the most common stuff so you don't have to reinvent the same crap over and over again, and 2. Leaves room to extend with an architecture (in plain old Ruby code) that fits your app's specific needs.
[B] Testing. A lot of people opt to use Rspec, but Rails's built-in testing is actually really great. My absolute favorite is their "Fast Integration Tests", which lets you write a few lines of code to test a big chunk of your app in a single test case.
[C] Ruby. Yes, it's actually a good language. But man, is it a double-edge sword. Used well, you can write some of the most simple, elegant, and maintainable code in your career, while only mildly pushing the boundaries of The Rails Way.
[D] Everything your app needs. So much stuff is built-in, and stays out of your way until you need it. And the fewer gems you need to install, the more maintainable your code tends to be.
Indeed, Rails is not legacy at all. Well, maybe if you think monoliths are legacy :) But it keeps up with the good trends. Version 5 introduced webpack, so now you can build your fancy JS frontends... without configuring webpack! Or be like me and only use JS as a last resort :)
To be honest, the only framework I can see doing better than Rails is Phoenix. At the moment it doesn't have everything Rails has to offer, but it does have (IMO) a superior foundation that has great potential to supersede. Until then though, I'll keep pumping out projects using the best tool on the market.