hi,

I can agree that the framework help us a lot and sometimes a little to much. And yes, you could write a smaller app without having to worry about things like performance. But if you are ever gonna work in a larger project with a larger application you need to know what you are doing, trust me!

In my opinion being a skilled senior deveveloper is when you know what you options are when facing a problem and being able to wight between them to find the best solution. And read me right here, best solution is not always the most complex one or the one build "by the book". The best solution is (usually) the one helping your company making as much money as possible in short and long term :) And btw, if you dont think about things like performance etc when writing a smaller app you will never get the skills needed to write a larger one :)

I strongly recomend reading a few books about architecture, like Dino Espinosa. And atleast one book about design patterns, like the one from Eric Gamma and his gang.

And yes, why not go for a Microsoft certification or two?