Good point. In theory, I agree; one particular app's "glue" is not necessarily a framework. If you come with your own architecture for your app, you are only creating a framework if you then abstract that architecture and embody it in software in such a way that it can be used for other apps.
However, there are so many layers and necessary abstractions in a web app that I think you do end up with a framework in practice. It's kind of like making a game without a game engine -- you end up writing a game engine. You can't not abstract certain things, like sprites and backgrounds for a 2D game, or the draw loop.
You don't need to write it all yourself, though. There's nothing wrong with a loosely-coupled collection of libraries that are hand-picked to do the task at hand. Add in a dash of abstraction, and you can even change those somewhat easily.
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Good point. In theory, I agree; one particular app's "glue" is not necessarily a framework. If you come with your own architecture for your app, you are only creating a framework if you then abstract that architecture and embody it in software in such a way that it can be used for other apps.
However, there are so many layers and necessary abstractions in a web app that I think you do end up with a framework in practice. It's kind of like making a game without a game engine -- you end up writing a game engine. You can't not abstract certain things, like sprites and backgrounds for a 2D game, or the draw loop.
You don't need to write it all yourself, though. There's nothing wrong with a loosely-coupled collection of libraries that are hand-picked to do the task at hand. Add in a dash of abstraction, and you can even change those somewhat easily.