Next js gets so much hate on HN. In my experience, it's been great. It's kind of like Apple in that, if you buy into the ecosystem, you unlock great benefits. Fwiw we're running on cloudflare at my work and it's been one of the most enjoyable DX I've had in a long time. RTFM and you'll be fine. Listen to conference talks and you'll understand why some of the 'weird' decisions were made - they might not even seem so weird anymore.