> I have always had this concept in my mind that frameworks are intended to be a way to help rapidly create an application with rich functionallity ...

Your understanding is correct. However, defining 'rich functionality' is akin to beauty in the eyes of the beholder. <g>

The truth is, with a framework you are expected to work within the constructs defined by the framework designer(s). In other words, adopting their way of doing things.

> ... and thus the developers who benefit the most from it are those who create new applications as opposed to the ones who spend all there time maintaining/modifying existing applications.

Frameworks enable a consistent development methodology and so the maintenance effort for all new applications can be kept to a minimum (since all applications would be based on the same basic constructs). As for existing applications, porting to a different framework might be a major undertaking so several ROI factors would need to be considered. Only you can make that determination. FWIW, I have just purchased CodeMine 7.1 to be used for all my commercial applications.

HTH,