Long-time Rails developer here (since 2006). From the very beginning, the scaffolds that came with Rails were seen as code that was not production-ready. They were mainly for prototyping.
I still use scaffolds to this day as my first step when building a greenfield app. Of course, I always revisit the code before I consider it production-ready, but it saves me time when taking the first step.
I think we should be careful not to confuse the scaffolds that come with Rails with the more general idea of code generators. Code generators are not bad; it's how you use them. If you use them to generate code that you never intend to review or understand, then yes, they are a crutch. Otherwise, they are a time-saving head-start or a great learning tool.
I still use scaffolds to this day as my first step when building a greenfield app. Of course, I always revisit the code before I consider it production-ready, but it saves me time when taking the first step.
I think we should be careful not to confuse the scaffolds that come with Rails with the more general idea of code generators. Code generators are not bad; it's how you use them. If you use them to generate code that you never intend to review or understand, then yes, they are a crutch. Otherwise, they are a time-saving head-start or a great learning tool.