I never used wordpress so I dont know if there's a high learning curve or not ? I dont think I want to explain my wife how to use it ...
The new Wordpress UI is very Medium-like now. I hated it at first, but that's only because I was so used to adding HTML to my posts, which is hidden in the new UI. It's aimed at non-technical writers, and is actually very intuitive.
Pick a simple theme, add one category, and start writing.
I's suggest using Wordpress.com and paying for it. Maintaining and upgrading your own Wordpress.org blog is a pain. No matter how careful you are it's almost a certainty that some malware will find a way in eventually. For a hassle free life, just pay Wordpress.com to manage it for you.
This is true with most self-hosted CMSes, although WordPress is a popular target for hackers.
I spent years perfecting the server setup for my website, and never got it right. If you want to self-host, static site generators are far more hands-off.
Honestly, it's not that hard - cron a task to keep the main install updated
Run as few plugins/themes as possible, and schedule them to autoupdate