@paulcolligan It really depends on what you are comfortable with.  I am not a fan of the things you listed – nothing fills me with more dread than the major updates.

What you have to ask yourself is if it is worth it?  To have the design customization options, be able to tweak functionality with plugins / coding, and to know you don’t have to worry about the blogging platform going away or removing your content because it doesn’t fit with their guidelines.  

@paulcolligan  I, too, dread the updates “just in case” they create issues but when I converted my old static website designed by a web designer to a Wordpress site, I suddenly could create my own customized design, add anything I wanted to my website in minutes, update and edit and the bonus was having my blog on my site.  I am now in “full control” of everything to do with my site and it is mine and on my domain and can interact with my visitors – I still have many more “to do’s” to get my site exactly the way I want it and add more features to reflect my business but I love the way my ranking in the search engines went from the basement to the first page of Google just by implementing some strategies and optimizing my site.  I doubt I will ever leave Wordpress – I’m just too satisfied to try anything else.

@paulcolligan 

I have tried different blogging platforms: Blogger, Tumblr, Wordpress. I like the flexibility of Wordpress and how I can do pretty much anything with it. I don’t believe that I’d ever jump ship as you put it. 

Also, for the more technical part, that which I don’t have the heart (or patience) to do, I ask a web programmer to do for me. That way I can focus on blogging and messing with the things that I can do.