1. Hype drives everything's popularity - if there is no community or hype surrounding something, it isn't popular
2. I have never once heard of someone complain about "too much freedom" - a web framework is there to help you build web applications, NOT to save you from your own stupidity
3. A simple Google search will tell you that many things, like webpack and babel, allow you to tree shake it half to death
4. The same is true for all software. The more complex it is, the larger it is. That's quite literally a given.
5. Form handling SHOULDN'T be built into it. It is a WEB FRAMEWORK. Not a forms generator.