Middleware in games

There is a good article in the August issue of Game Developer Magazine about middleware, here is a quote from there:

"It's long been appreciated that using game engines and middleware libraries can get the team up and running more quickly on the target platform during the development process, allowing artists and designers to mock up the game much earlier. Commenters noted, "While middleware is not perfect, it allows us to concentrate on the areas that really make our game different, rather than implement basics. But programmers tend to not like [middleware] because it makes their lives more difficult [and the naive ones think they can do it better]."