WP, HTML or a Hybrid?

I have been creating both WordPress and HTML sites for many years. But lately I have found that plugins, constant updates, etc. make the maintenance of WP sites a chore. As one support person at my hosting company put it "..you can't just expect to create a WP site and not constantly maintain it..". Well, he might have gotten a bit carried away. But I understand what he means. WP sites can break if you don't update the plugins.

I am curious to know if any of you have thrown in the towel and WP overboard due to speed, security, maintenance and complete design control?

Is the ultimate answer an HTML site with a WP blog on the menu? I have done that before.

I am playing with Bold Grid and Elementor to see if I can create exactly what I want. Both of these plugins make you bend to their will. Anything out there that has more creative freedom?

Not an easy question. The last time I used Wordpress was somewhere around 2012, because of everything you mentioned. People underestimate the maintenance work a Wordpress blog has.

But for most people Wordpress has four advantages:

1. No coding skill required to create a Wordpress blog
2. Easy installation of themes and plugins
3. Free themes and plugins
4. Because of PHP + MySQL, every $1 shared host can be used

If you are just serving basic HTML with no backend functionality, using simple HTML is the best way in terms of performance and security. If you need backend processing, it all depends on your requirement, time and budget.

Well, the WP content management system has already simplified most of the processes for you, and with consistently changing codes, PHP upgrades, structured data updates, etc, all you need to do is to click on the "Update" button to get the latest update.
If it is a HTML site, which presumably isn't automated, then the code will all be the same and you will need to manually update those information respectively.
If you do not like updating the WP site then don't - it doesn't really have a big impact though, but updating it may be a good choice - I personally don't really update it as frequent as needed - if it is already working, why bother?

It depends on the person's preference, actually. I personally prefer WP because of the ease of use and it's normally less time consuming to deal with. They're two different things and HTML can give you no limits, but WP, on the other hand, has so many plugins and other opportunities for better customization that are already out there and are ready to be maximized by anyone who wishes to use them.

i havent updated some of my WP sites in a year and they still work great

I can suggest you to use wp most people use this platform for all kind of niches

I think you can try GoDaddy Pro free option to manage all your WordPress websites in the same console and do one-click updates.