I used to have a self-hosted WP blog. I devoted hours to customizing templates I'd purchased. Then WP completely changed is architecture under the hood, my site got totally screwed up and I no longer felt like devoting hours to troubleshooting code, and updating plugins. So I agree with you on that point.

But I don't think of myself as a "content creator". I write creative non-fiction and personal essays. Neither can be "chopped up" or sliced and diced to turn into Tweets or Instagram posts. Even if they could, they're not "monetizable." In 4 years of being in the Partner Program, I've made less than $400. OTOH I have 700 followers who read my writing and whose lives I sometimes touch with what I write. This is many orders of magnitude beyond the readership of my own blogs over the years.

I write about a lot of different things, none of them how-tos, life hacks, or listicles. But for those who do, this article is probably helpful.