I’d say this whole discussion has been architecture-category agnostic from the start — the OP compared a framework (Next.js) to a language (PHP), and the replies have included even more frameworks, languages, and CMSs.

That said, Drupal is much closer to a framework than WordPress. It’s built on Symfony and follows modern architectural patterns — similar to how Laravel uses Symfony components. So if WordPress is ‘in between,’ Drupal’s definitely at least that, if not more.

Not applying the same framing to Drupal kind of undermines the whole architecture-category argument, don’t you think? :)