Craig,
>Now, I think there is one con to frameworks...it hides how things really work in VFP. You tend to learn how the framework works and not how VFP works.
Speaking from experience with only Visual Maxframe Professional so far, I can say that I have learned quite a bit about how VFP works from reading Drew Speedie's excellent implementation notes in his pre-built classes. The documentation also contains a good bit of pros/cons of differing approaches to the same problem.
He's very good about explaining *why* things are done a certain way in the framework. This may be an exception to your statement above, but I would say that buying, studying and experimenting with VMP is an excellent learning experience, even for those who ultimately choose another framework.