Exploring the impact of architectural decisions on Phoenix's popularity

The author shares a personal perspective on the Phoenix framework, emphasizing its popularity amongst a dedicated group of developers despite its limited wider adoption compared to frameworks like Rails. They attribute part of Phoenix's restrained growth to its architectural decisions, especially the introduction of contexts in version 1.3. This change, while rooted in domain-driven design principles, seems to confuse beginners, raising the barrier to entry. The author discusses the difficulties that arise from naming contexts, and how novice developers are often unsure of how to structure their applications. Over time, contexts have led to clutter and boilerplate in codebases, with many functions becoming repetitive wrappers. While the author acknowledges the merit of contexts, they argue that the Phoenix community should recognize that these architectural complexities may be hindering adoption. They suggest the need for better tools or conventions that decrease this complexity, or even the possibility of easing beginners into the framework more gradually.