I confess I have failed multiple times to build simple web pages (like a blog and homepage, admittedly after not too much effort), while I've made multiple fairly complex javascript animations using canvas and p5.js library. And I've made a few websites as a kid! (I'm not sure using free WYSIWYG or HTML directly).
So appreciate a lot new developments in the really-easy-to-use open source and text tools that also enable more involved use case!
Admittedly I also have not tried to learn React or other frameworks (most times I got stuck on backend basics).
It would be awesome if (almost) anyone could easily type out a website using simple and open source tools (specially with a little more involved functionality than just static content, or more free looks), and it just worked (with minimal coding required for the backend -- that's what's great about plain html imo, it's just a few files that contain your whole website). I mean, meanwhile it's great that something like hosted blogs exist of course.
To be frank, this would likely not help you. A simple web page is effectively simpler XML as the HTML elements that are already there are quite enough.
I might be completely off the mark here (edit while writing the comment, considering you mention static HTML I probably am, going to leave the comment anyway for others to see), but considering you seem to think that you need React (or any javascript for that matter) to me seems to hint at a practical knowledge gap about HTML and webpages in general.
Which, is more common these days exactly because modern libraries effectively abstract it away to the point where people only see HTML when looking at the DOM representation in the browser devtools.
> It would be awesome if (almost) anyone could easily type out a website using simple and open source tools (specially with a little more involved functionality than just static content, or more free looks),
It is interesting to me how we effectively regressed here. At least as far as common knowledge goes. You can still go to a basic shared webhosting provider, get a domain, some storage, mysql/mariadb datbase, php and do all of that with relatively little effort. Of course, PHP isn't considered to be relevant anymore which is entirely fair. But it is by far the most straightforward way to get a website going with an actual backend that doesn't require you to do cloud wrangling and all that.
Yea, I am indeed quite deficient in HTML knowledge and webpages in general. I'll look into PHP, thanks. Overall I have standards (that might be unachievable?) that I think tools should aim to be extremely simple if at all possible (at least there should be niche tools that achieve this, I mean), and what I've seen from web development doesn't quite meet those goals :P
I really like OpenSCAD for instance, which despite being a little difficult to do complex stuff with, is quite easy to learn (and you can indeed do complex things with a little methodology). Like, everything about the web seems a little obtuse to me. One day I'll learn a little more to hopefully make more educated comments :)
So appreciate a lot new developments in the really-easy-to-use open source and text tools that also enable more involved use case!
Admittedly I also have not tried to learn React or other frameworks (most times I got stuck on backend basics).
It would be awesome if (almost) anyone could easily type out a website using simple and open source tools (specially with a little more involved functionality than just static content, or more free looks), and it just worked (with minimal coding required for the backend -- that's what's great about plain html imo, it's just a few files that contain your whole website). I mean, meanwhile it's great that something like hosted blogs exist of course.