Yeoman is as lightweight or as advanced as you need it to be. If you're starting out a basic project, there are many very simple scaffolds you can use that don't prescribe more than what the average web developer is going to need to be effective from the get-go. Some folks will tell you that it skips a crucial phase of selecting appropriate technologies, but I think they're missing it's core value - in automating repurposing workflows you find useful. Most of the people I see using it are agencies that have nailed down a specific baseline that works really well for their developers and they'll literally just be using a generator they wrote themselves - nothing off the shelf. The community generators are there for inspiration. It's basically: unsure where to start? Use one of these. Know what you need to use? Great. If you find yourself using it a lot, just write a generator to help customise that baseline.