Nothing that you wrote really comes across as anything but 'yeah, Hugo is complicated'. Which is sort of the point of the specific call out of Hugo.
And I've been using it for a very long time now. I actually wrote the original _index.md explainer page for the docs at the time the switch was made to stop it being 'abused' for section front matter. At least, I think that was the work around people were using, I forget after all the changes there have been.
Hugo is a powerful tool. I'm sure there are ways to do almost anything with it, and some of them answer the critiques in the article. But it's constantly changing (it's still a long way from version 1.0) and its power and flexibility bring a steep learning curve and their own way of doing things, which seems to also be what the article is commenting on in general with static site generators.
And I've been using it for a very long time now. I actually wrote the original _index.md explainer page for the docs at the time the switch was made to stop it being 'abused' for section front matter. At least, I think that was the work around people were using, I forget after all the changes there have been.
Hugo is a powerful tool. I'm sure there are ways to do almost anything with it, and some of them answer the critiques in the article. But it's constantly changing (it's still a long way from version 1.0) and its power and flexibility bring a steep learning curve and their own way of doing things, which seems to also be what the article is commenting on in general with static site generators.