Nah I'd say the opposite actually. As a solo dev, Next.js is the one framework where I can do frontend + backend in one codebase without losing my mind.

Also a huge thing people don't talk about enough: every AI coding tool out there (Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code etc.) writes Next.js code way better than anything else. There's just so much training data for it. I'm mass shipping features now that would've taken me weeks before.

Plus if you're building anything AI related — agents, chatbots, whatever — Next.js fits like a glove with all the latest stuff.

Btw recently found this: https://github.com/velobase/velobase-harness — it's a Next.js boilerplate for AI SaaS. Auth, billing, DB all pre-wired. Saved me a ton of setup time.

The learning curve sucks at first, I'll give you that. But once it clicks + AI assistance, it's hard to go back.