From what I can tell it's a declarative framework (while most other common ones are imperative). And as generally with the tradeoffs of a declarative approach, if the data/model is easy the baked in assumption require less input, while if it's more complex your config files will be equally verbose and/or you will run into a wall. I don't see much automation there, just abstraction.

Interesting opinion. Well I must disagree in some points. First, yes sure the tool uses declarative paradigm, which is the goal of the project. If you want to use ML without writing code, then you will certainly not want an imperative framework.

Second, I must disagree that most other common frameworks are imperative. I would say it's a mix of declarative & imperative but certainly not imperative.

Finally, it's interesting how you see this as a just abstraction tool. I find other ML frameworks are more about abstraction since you are focusing on building your model but all details are hidden from you using the framework. Sure, igel is also about abstraction but to say it's JUST abstraction? mmm I find it not quite right, instead it's more about automating the stuff that you would write yourself using other frameworks.

At the end of the day, we all have different opinions and feedback is important ;)