[sandGorgon]

it may or may not be one page - however, that is a pretty fundamental question you ask about static site generators.

Why use them, when you can use plain html ?

Well, its because they come with nice features like componentized layouts and templates, optimized build (including minification of any js, etc) and most importantly content in markdown/yaml for easy editing.

[jstanley]

For me, the reason to use templates is so that the navigation, header, footer, etc. is internally-consistent without O(n) human effort.