>Biggest downside I know of: Wordpress is too much learning curve & overhead for a simple personal blog.

That was the conclusion I came to when I was muddling through various options last year. I had a Blogger blog already and decided to just roll in whatever professional content I wanted to add, which was the right solution for me. It helped that various folks I knew didn't bother having hard boundaries behind personal and professional content and that worked for me as well.

Thank You! This lead to me login and rediscover I actually had a blog 15 years ago.

The thing that stopped me was much like what you said, learning curve and too much friction. Right now I have bearblog, mataroa.blog and nicheless, all with their own strength and flaws.