Oh, I'm very aware (I actually do use those tricks on my personal page. Unfortunately I left out the midi. And of course it's loaded with stolen gifs from gifcities[0])
I had a legit use for a marquee a few months ago and couldn't find a jank-free way to actually re-create all of its features. You can get the basics but even that sucks compared to just using <marquee> (heavier, more code).
I recently started a blog to write about my experience learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. One of the best choices I made was using the bundled WordPress theme, twentynineteen, and not worrying about design. It's been pretty liberating and for now I'm just focused on content. I'll revisit the design at some point but worrying about the design in the beginning is almost like not learning to play guitar because you don't have a band name yet. Just start putting content up, the design will or won't come. Good luck!!
Don't worry about the design. That can come later. Just get a single, well formed HTML page up there with a few words. Once you have that the design and content problems will seem less insurmountable.
I spent years agonising. I even wrote my own Node.js framework before I finally realised it was all procrastination, and put together a static site and deployed it in a few minutes. Over the years I've added features and improved the static site generator, but the design is still a bit rubbish!
It's one I hand rolled in Node. It boils down to markdown for blog entries and handlebars for templates. Not exactly in vogue, but I've found the mix (with a little hacking around) very productive. The code is at https://github.com/qubyte/qubyte-codes if you're interested. :)