I've done many wordpress + ACF websites and ACF sure makes the developer's life easy! and ACF along with Custom Post Type UI literally cuts down hours of coding efforts to just few minutes..

It sure would make the developer's life a lot easier if ACF features were built into wordpress core.

I prefer a lot CMB2 since the code knowledge required is really little and the project is open source and a LOT of developer are expanding it writing modules and new plugins. I tried ACF few times and even if the UI is really helpful to create Custom Meta as a developer I always prefer to include the CMB2 library inside my project and work with it without the need to install a new plugin.

ACF is not the present nor the future. CMB2 is far better if you know how to code a little. Anyway there will be a native field api soon i bet, because together with shortcode api and rest api is one of the most wanted features by wp users.

I've coded a large website using this approach (WP + ACF + WPAPI + Backbone) and while it definitely helps, it shouldn't be considered the future. We shouldn't be relying on a plugin to extend the concept of posts within a blog CMS.

The future would be Wordpress pivoting into a CMS that can accommodate for a wider range of content, that drops posts and embraces the customisability the community has been providing through these high installation plugins. I remember reading somewhere that Wordpress is trying to become the 'OS of the web', and I applaud that. I just hope they do it in a way that accommodates for sites that don't fit the blog model.

First point — Who creates a website on Wordpress in 2015?

Second point — Future of wordpress? or website? or both?

Third point — What is ACF? How can a plugin help a website grow?

Sorry for being harsh! :)

What is ACF? Would love to know more about it!