> Even if the features you mentioned were included in WordPress core, they would be implemented as plugins that can be replaced with other plugins. > ... Every

> Even if the features you mentioned were included in WordPress core, they would be implemented as plugins that can be replaced with other plugins. > ... Everyone is trying to do everything, everyone is stepping on everyone else's toes, and it's impossible for anyone to maintain all the unrelated features that are bundled together in each plugin. If these plugins were in core though, they'd likely have much better security and be less bloated. The problem with the plugin ecosystem you mention I think stems from monetization - there's the incentive to stuff freemium plugins with functionality so you can charge for paid features. I really don't know how WordPress can reign this in. I think the WordPress core that plugins build upon has bad security fundamentals as well e.g. the default PHP templating language doesn't even escape strings by default, most theme and plugin file permissions aren't locked down to read-only, Git-based versioning and deploys isn't built-in or widely practiced. > There are really neat plugins that do one thing, do it well, and are easy to audit. What plugins would you recommend? I find you can get pretty far with Advanced Custom Fields and an SEO plugin.