1: When I wrote “digital designer” I mean the person who do the user experience, the visual concepts and the top level design. I am not talking about a digital art worker or a template designer.

2: What I meant with a digital designer not having to learn HTML I meant not learning HTML to a PROFESSIONAL level. Understanding the basics is good but much more important is understanding what can be done with HTML. 

I got a fairly good idea of what can be done with Javascript but I can’t write it myself. Similar I know HTML quite well, having hand-coded some of the most accessible sites in the past, but today I wouldn’t pass myself off as a professional HTML developer. 

In fact I think fronteend development is too often not given the credit it need. It seems to fall on everybody and nobody to do it, but those who do solely fronteend development are miles better than those who do it as part of other roles.

You are right about the steep learning curve for a self-hosted WordPress and yes, I tend to recommend About.me and Flavours.me as well to people. But the last couple of years I have seen a surge in emails/DMs both from graphic designers/offline art directors (both friends and people i don’t know) asking for advice in producing a more professional online presence. 

I know WordPress so that is what I am recommending. Most non-digital savvy people are able to get self-hosted WordPress sites up and running. Just because they are not digital professionals doesn’t mean they are not intelligent and WordPress, its instructions and its community are all very helpful. My experience with Drupal is it is much more technical and the admin interface is not easy to understand for non-digital people.