My latest article titled "Ruby on Rails in the Enterprise Toolbox" has been published in the January 2006 volume of the JavaRanch Journal.
I tried to pass on my perspective about Rails in "enterprise" use without falling too much into comparing it with J2EE or .NET. In other words, I didn't want to end up with a full-blown flame war on my porch.
The article really improved massively from the first drafts thanks to Dave, David, and Allan who graciously offered to help out by reviewing the article, correcting oversights, flaws, and on the text in general.
Do check out the other articles in the issue as well--lot's of good stuff in there!
Anytime you believe automation to not be worth the trouble, I encourage you to change your viewpoint and find a way to reduce your automation cost.