I had the same frustration, but my experience with Gatsby and Hugo is that you just need to get past the how-tos and quick-starts. To get started quickly, you

I had the same frustration, but my experience with Gatsby and Hugo is that you just need to get past the how-tos and quick-starts. To get started quickly, you need a lot of structure in place, and most people just want a blog, so that's what the starter themes and tutorials cater to. If you get past the tutorials and get comfortable in the official documentation, the functionality turns out to be more general.