[macandcheese]

You should ideally be able to skip using these tools if you are proficient enough in basic html/css. It's easier to share a deployed static website with stakeholders, easier to immediately see media queries in action, you can use partials, etc. I personally use Middleman as it's dead quick to get up and running. Once you establish a library of components you can plug and play in real code just like you could with these tools - with a little head start on building it out.

Once you get in the habit of building static sites as wireframe prototypes it's hard to go back to "wireframe only" tool.