Twisted is complex, you’re right about that. Twisted is not bloated.
If you take a look here: http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/browser/trunk/twisted you’ll find an organized, comprehensive, and very well tested suite of many protocols of the internet, as well as helper code to write and deploy very sophisticated network applications. I wouldn’t confuse bloat with comprehensiveness.
It’s well known that the Twisted documentation isn’t the most user-friendly from first glance, and I believe this turns away an unfortunate number of people. But Twisted is amazing (IMHO) if you put in the time. I did and it proved to be worth it, and I’d recommend to others to try the same.