Zope is more open and can quickly integrate new technology to it. This is a product that has everything for web development that is proven and production ready. How many products in the market has database, search engine, webserver, ftp, Perl/php/webdev/xml/xslt/html support for free.
I agree learning zope is tough. Not for weak heart, if you are a good python programmer you will master it quickly and appreciate the product.
Zope is envy to other scripting language products. Like any good products zope too is getting lot of criticism from people who don't use it.
-- Yoma
