> HTML is unpleasant to write.
Is it really, though? HTML is a very deep toolbox, but to write blog articles you really only need a handful of tools on the surface level. If you were previously using markdown, all you need to do is review the basic syntax[0] to figure out the equivalent HTML tags. Writing HTML is hardly any less pleasant, albeit a little more verbose, if you just stick to those tags.
I think primary value of languages like markdown is input sanitation. If a user makes a mistake in their markdown syntax, there's no risk of it breaking other elements on the page. But when you as the host are the only user, I say pure HTML is the way to go.