How are any of these simpler than "Get VM, install server, rsync files"? Why is the solution always "sign up for a proprietary service that might not exist next year and rig up a bunch of fragile webhooks"?
It's simpler from a certain point of view, namely one where you don't want to have to maintain the VM.
It's more complicated because you need to know more random tech that I bet you don't want to learn. Which is fine, it's really not necessary.
By the way, you should learn git sometime. Or there's a couple other VCSes that are somewhat known, but git is both good and has good networking effects (everyone uses it).
I prefer Mercurial, and as a hobbyist I can afford to stay with it. I know Git has GitHub and all the connectivity of that, but I just truly dislike Git.
Ah, I didn't see that you use mercurial instead of git when I made my last comment.
I'd love to be able to make red-line decisions like this regardless, no matter what. For example, I absolutely hate MacOS and would love to say "hard no" to any job offer if they insist that I use MacOS, regardless of job fit or TC. But ultimately, I back down once they show me the money, and find myself using it anyway.
I agree about the fragile frameworks but not the rest.
In this case I'd say that "simple" is a product of familiarity, manual steps, and future maintenance. "Get a VM" also means "install stuff on a VM", "secure a VM", "monitor load, memory, disk space on a VM" and "manage a VM into the future, upgrading the host OS and fixing whatever breaks". Is rsync easier than git? Maybe, but it doesn't have version control (which is nice to have). I think the git suggestions are based on the assumption that only a tiny number of people could do VM setup, webserver config, rsync etc but couldn't do git add, commit and push.
Personally, I use Cloudflare because it handles DNS, CDN and is basically hands-off after setup.
It is not generosity, they hook you in for free so when your needs grow you will stick with their platform and pay. Static sites are cheap to host that is why it is free.
Should your needs grow past simple static sites they are hoping you will use their paid options. This isn't a "you are the product" situation.
Also, I don't use Git or Github.