I like this answer because it gives the context around why static site generators came to be. Back in the day the simplicity of a pure html/css site was wonder

I like this answer because it gives the context around why static site generators came to be. Back in the day the simplicity of a pure html/css site was wonderful. Then as soon as we needed templating or a shared component like a footer, we bumped to to the most approachable full-blown server side language, PHP, ten years ago. Today we can use a static site generator as an alternative to fill that use case. Besides the benefits in security and performance, you can also benefit from cheaper hosting -- for example, you could host the static front end for free on GitHub Pages (even with a custom domain) or for pretty cheap on S3.