That rings true. I was looking for a static site template just earlier today (along the lines of Hugo, Jekyll, etc.) and was quickly reminded that a lot of tem

That rings true. I was looking for a static site template just earlier today (along the lines of Hugo, Jekyll, etc.) and was quickly reminded that a lot of templates available online, and there are thousands both free and paid ... do not look that great or work that well. Even ones you like at first blush will likely need a ton of customization to fit your use case. Rabbit hole, indeed! For picking a usable one, I think other comments in the thread have it right: look for basic things like consistency of the spacing, non-obnoxious colors and fonts, etc. Does it just seem "clean" and usable at first glance, or does it give you an instinctive mental itch that something about it seems clunky or poorly done? Or too contrived or too opinionated for your use case? And whether or not the design breaks on mobile. Even if you don't really care about mobile for your use case, if a pre-built design gets it right, that's a good indicator that some care and thought went into it.