There are so many alternatives to Wordpress. And so many of them focus on being a blog and not a CMS. I think Wordpress is not bad at all to start a blog with, but if you want something simpler, have a look at some options. For example, I'm involved with Serendipity, which is around as old as Wordpress but not a CMS. And btw, writing your own blog engine is something every web developer should do (mine is called ursprung).

What I agree with: Medium and Blogger are bad options, and static site generators really are too complicated for many potential bloggers.