Ah finally something fresh on the table.
The site is hand-rolled because I wanted to understand the whole surface.
Markdown in, templates out. A small content loader. Explicit schemas. A build script that writes files, feeds, sitemap, and cards. Nothing here needed a framework.
That is not a general argument against frameworks. It is a local preference for this project. The site is small enough that the boring parts are still readable, and the weird parts are easier to shape when I own the pipeline.
The tradeoff is obvious: I have to maintain the little system myself. For a personal scratchpad, that feels like the point.