If you just want to do blog/article posts, quick and dirty way is Substack or Ghost. If you want more flexibility/code it yourself, HTML + Caddy on a VPS is straightforward.
Let me know if I can help, I went down the rabbit hole on all these tradeoffs recently for my own site.
I have done so before, but I would demise them months later. I bought a domain a year ago but didn't go anywhere with it. I am just hosting static articles generated with Hugo / Jekyll. I still have some forks of themes I did to be compatible with my server's hardening settings and design choices but I'd have to brainstorm closer about how I want the site to be laid out, as I had ideas for things outside of blogs.
If you want a flexible template, checkout my site's Github: https://github.com/thebrandonlucas/blu
I've managed to get it to where you can just upload things to the `md` folder as markdown, and it auto-deploys to my site's VPS via a Github action and it just works. But because it's written in svelte, you have full flexibility to code up whatever else you want if needed. I spent a lot of time building it that way so I could have the low barrier to publishing while also having the full power of a webapp if I later wanted it. Sounds at least on track for what you're looking for.
Also, this awesome handcrafted blog was hugely helpful to me while thinking through all this: https://gwern.net/ref/gwern-design
