[understandwp]

I cannot comment on the closed systems, as I have not used them, but I do think that WordPress is a viable option.

If you just want to write and for the writing to be seen by Google, then you really do not need more than a couple of plugins and you should have a working blog that you do not need to spend any time on maintaining.

I would go with GeneratePress - https://wordpress.org/themes/generatepress/ and its companion plugin GenerateBlocks - https://wordpress.org/plugins/generateblocks/ for some simple blocks to design the blog. Both of them are well-coded and fast/lightweight.

In addition to them I would use SEO Framework - https://wordpress.org/plugins/autodescription/ as the SEO plugin and you are set. Just set everything to auto update and there should not really be any issues.

No affiliation to any of those plugins/themes, but have been using GeneratePress, GenerateBlocks and GeneratePress Premium for years and not one update has broken anything for me.