I wouldn't go as far as to call Twisted bloated, but it is difficult to wrap your head around. I avoided really settling in an learn for quite a while as I always wanted something a little easier for 'small tasks'.
However, now that I have worked with it some more I have to say having all the batteries included is VERY nice.
All the other async libraries I've worked with end being way less mature than they even appear. Twisted's event loop is solid.
I'm not quite sure how to solve the steep Twisted learning curve. It might help if someone would fork it and clean a few things up, like removing all the backwards compatability cruft and the dead projects. But that's the nature of mature software I guess.
