Regarding Discourse, admittedly, yes, it just feels unusual at first. For instance, when composing my first post, I couldn’t see preview, since it was hidden behind welcome message and I didn’t realize I have to close it. This hurt my experience. 
Now, when I spent some time looking around, it’s not that bad.
Now to the topic. I see a lot of people are not using 3rd party components at all, creating their own. I find it very unproductive. I rather carefully choose components that cover most of my needs and just create specials or what’s missing.
I’m often using advanced grids, pivots, charts and other controls. It’s not something you create in few hours.