This article seems to be more WordPress install/customisation pain points rather than development ones. For example, while plugin conflicts are definitely a thi

This article seems to be more WordPress install/customisation pain points rather than development ones. For example, while plugin conflicts are definitely a thing, they're usually not that big of a deal for longtime WordPress developers, since they'll custom code as much as they can and stick with tried and tested plugins for the rest. So they generally won't have to worry about multiple plugins doing the same thing. Nor will the attack surface issue to be as much of an issue for similar reasons. Similarly, most longtime devs will code their own WordPress themes for every project (or use a framework they developed themselves), and have things like local versions of sites as everyday procedure. This isn't a large company and WordPress guru thing. It's an 'anyone who's worked with WordPress on a more technical level for more than a year or so' thing. Web development and marketing agencies do this, freelancers do this, startups do this and individuals running their own sites often do this too. Hell, it's what I do for all my own projects. So yeah, it's not really about pain points developing with WordPress. It's about pain points from people installing WordPress + themes and plugins who aren't skilled at developing for the system yet, or who are mostly non technical and relying on premade resources.