I remember a time when WordPress was "easy". Nowadays starting from a clean install and customizing the appearance and modules has actually become quite difficult. Even the usage workflow feels bloated.
These days I prefer Dotclear as a blog engine. It also has grown in complexity over the years, but not quite as much and still feels like nothing is getting on your way.
This is from the point of view of someone knowing how to program and the languages involved (PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS, etc.) but who's not a professional web developer and even less a professional WordPress-based developer (since this is now actually a thing).
These days I prefer Dotclear as a blog engine. It also has grown in complexity over the years, but not quite as much and still feels like nothing is getting on your way.
This is from the point of view of someone knowing how to program and the languages involved (PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS, etc.) but who's not a professional web developer and even less a professional WordPress-based developer (since this is now actually a thing).