There is no paradox at all: simplicity is beautiful but complexity sells. The author thinks that value come from realized utility. However, in most market segments, value came from perception. With complexity (even useless ones), you can boost perceived value. How do you impress people when all the greatness is under the hood?
I use several SSGs and wrote one myself. I still can't recommend any SSG to people willing to pay.
> The author thinks that value come from realized utility.
For the majority of the world, Wordpress indeed does provide more utility than an SSG. Wordpress is famous for their 5 minute installs, and then everything just works.
Also, the article is about fully managed Wordpress vs self-hosted (or PaaS hosted) SSG. If the choice is between self-hosted Wordpress vs self-hosted SSG, I bet the outcome will be very different.
Now, you may wonder why the OP was not make an apple to apple comparison, like fully managed Wordpress vs fully managed SSG. Well, fully managed SSG does not exists, because it won't sell!
I use several SSGs and wrote one myself. I still can't recommend any SSG to people willing to pay.