I've mostly viewed a lot of those types of things as a tutorial on How Not To Do ThingsThat's why I said they make the easy easier. If you need a simple data app, something like the 2.6 generator seems pretty cool. Hey presto, finished! If you want to do something more complex, it may be cheaper and easier to start from scratch.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1