I would argue that if you're looking for a simpler way to build CRUD apps, just skip the middleman and use postgREST. I've been playing with Elixir and Phoenix, and while they're pretty great I like postgREST much better. You eliminate an unnecessary (in most cases) abstraction and backing onto the grown up postgresql authorization and authentication is invaluable for securing your app.
For non webapp stuff I've been happy using golang.
I'd love to hear your opinion on liveview if you've played with it at all. The two ways forward for the industry I see are something like hasura/postgrest with heavy js in the frontend, or something like liveview/blazor. I'd expect the more decoupled approach to win long term, but demos like this: https://github.com/moomerman/flappy-phoenix are extremely impressive.
For non webapp stuff I've been happy using golang.