[jordanlev]

ahh, I see what you mean. Yeah, if you don't have comments or other interactive functionality then generating static pages from your data + templates is great.

That being said, in my experience, most sites have at least some interactivity... even if the primary content isn't. Comments are still pretty standard on most blogs (disqus can be an option, but now you're back to the "why does this require javascript when it doesn't really need to?" problem). Surveys and polls have fallen out of fashion (fortunately), but that's another example. Also, contact forms are a big one (and yeah, there are other options like embedding wufoo or using a form-handling service like Brace Forms, but now we're talking about off-loading a lot of functionality to other services).

As a developer, there are a lot of things about wordpress that I don't like... but I cannot argue that for someone who is not a programmer but likes to tinker, it gives you a ton of functionality out-of-the-box or with plugins. It's the last thing I'd want to use personally, but I think this is the appeal of dynamic sites -- it gives you the flexibility to add all sorts of unrelated crap really easily.