I have been doing a lot of "pros-and-cons" stuff from a little over 2 years now - about using Laravel.
I made it a big deal (and I believe I regret it in a certain capacity).
It should not have been a big deal.
It is a just another framework.
Finally, I have caught up with my senses and I strongly believe that I was too arrogant or stupid to not go down the Laravel path.
I am far too young to allow myself to fall into such traps of "not-wanting-to-do-certain-framework-or-language".
Laravel, here I am, and I have come to bargain... and after that it's you "React JS and React Native"...

Although I really like CakePHP (or any generic PHP framework including SlimPHP ), but I strongly believe I need to move to Laravel... for multiple reasons... and yes, the ability to demonstrate the speed of development is one of the strongest one.
Most of the Laravel developers I have met/worked-with are "painfully" slow and the only reason I am unable to provide direct inputs is because of my lack of knowledge of the framework and the design patterns being used in the projects (by the framework and by the developers).
One of the biggest quirk I have seen with Laravel developers (the ones that I have worked with) is about the ORM/Model layer - ridiculing it a lot, and complaining about "slow performance due to slow queries" by blaming it entirely on Laravel. Without even looking at the official docs and searching Google/Stackoverflow or even Laracasts (the ones that I have work with have a licensed version of Laracasts) - I can guarantee that the problem is with the implementation by developers and not in the framework. Even if it is the framework (which is definitely not the case) any ORM can be used (CakePHP's ORM can also be used).
No caching
No clear understanding of security (and hence the lack of implementation)
No optimisation methodologies
No DB understanding (although not directly a part of Laravel, but I have seen a serious lack of understanding in this domain as well)
And probably much more other reasons would be identified as I dive deep into the learning path.
I am starting, correction - restarting, this weekend... wish me luck (again) and let me say this yet again....
Laravel, I've come to bargain....