Rob Conerey tells it like it is:

The Great Lie
WebForms is a lie. It’s abstraction wrapped in deception covered in lie sauce presented on a plate full of diversion and sleight of hand. Nothing you do with Webforms has anything to do with the web – you let it do the work for you.

This, friends, is a big deal (at least to me): You’re working in a lie. The web is not stateful and works with this stuff called HTML sent across wires using another thing called HTTP – you need to know this, love this, and feel it at the bone level.

This is my main problem with many of the “advanced” Web frameworks in the Java space, too. For more, check out Jon Arild Tørresdal’s news item on InfoQ.