I used both Wordpress 'versions' - free on .com, self-hosted on Amazon. It's GREAT! The dashboard that gives you all information you want/need, how easy it is to edit posts and pages switching from desktop to mobile, having a widget on mobile to see visits, etc...
The only reason I switched to Hugo is because I wanted custom domain + javascript (for adding some embeds that wordpress doesn't support by default), and I didn't want to pay 8 bucks (I think 10 CAD) for that on .com, and didn't want the hassle to host on Amazon anymore.
But I surely miss being able to have all my drafts available everywhere, and publish with the click of a button.
EDIT: I also miss that all other bloggers from my circle except another one, all use wordpress, and follow each other on the wordpress reader, and comment using wordpress comments. I'm likely missing a good chunk of views and comments because of that
I can totally understand where you are coming from but that doesn't mean I don't also see the big BUT there. I'm sure we can agree neither PHP or WP are perfect, especially historically.
If you can see no BUT in WordPress or PHP I doubt you know much about them and their history (especially since you wrote you don't use them). There's a massive list to be written about their bad sides. Mind you I use PHP so this isn't coming from some hater BUT having used it in many versions I can definitely see many huge problems that mostly have not even been acknowledged until lately. As stated, it can do the job BUT.....
This is because WordPress is the equivalent of PHP. Sure it can do the job but there's a very big BUT in there, always.