I would leverage your existing knowledge but avoid WordPress, and instead use Grav (https://getgrav.org https://getgrav.org). It's open source and much more fle

I would leverage your existing knowledge but avoid WordPress, and instead use Grav (https://getgrav.org https://getgrav.org). It's open source and much more flexible than WordPress, plus it does not require a database (it's a flat-file CMS) and it's very easy to build a site with it. You don't have to have WordPress as the go-to resource for everything, but also you don't really have to roll your own CMS every time you build up a site, which is quite a time consuming task. Grav offers a light experience to a CMS, and you can decide if you want to just work with markdown files, or rely on the Admin panel for easier editing. (Disclosure: I'm a dev team member).