Not really, a CMS is good because you don't have to build the same thing multiple times. However, if you plan on using a CMS as a tool to create solid, scalable, efficient applications, you will need to understand how to use the CMS properly. Many times that means understand what the CMS is doing behind the scenes. Any good programmer should be able to code a project like Drupal, granted that would take time, but they should be able to do it without sweating too much. I get extremely tired of the noobs and click-monkeys taking of the drupal community. If you can't write your own decent CMS because you don't know how, you should find another job, and leave application development to people who can do it properly and give clients a product that is worth the money they payed.

You're confusing Drupal with a CMS. It's much more, and less.

I'm not confusing it with a CMS at all, it is a CMS. You can use it more as a framework, but as a framework it really kind of sucks when compared to Code Igniter or zend, or even Yii.