There are so many options because creating a simple site generator is actually almost trivial, given there are great markdown-to-html converters, code highlighting libraries etc. that do the hard work for you already.
My own websites are all written in markdown using a little Go framework I wrote myself. Extremely simple, does exactly what I need, has none of the Hugo complexity (Hugo started simple as well but kind of added too many features over time). Highly recommend doing this for anyone who enjoy programming and writing their own tools.
This list should have something for everyone: https://jamstack.org/generators/
There are so many options because creating a simple site generator is actually almost trivial, given there are great markdown-to-html converters, code highlighting libraries etc. that do the hard work for you already.
My own websites are all written in markdown using a little Go framework I wrote myself. Extremely simple, does exactly what I need, has none of the Hugo complexity (Hugo started simple as well but kind of added too many features over time). Highly recommend doing this for anyone who enjoy programming and writing their own tools.