That’s a very black-and-white view of a much more nuanced tool.
- “Really painful to work with”: For content editors, it’s often the opposite. Many clients prefer switching to Gutenberg because it feels familiar (like Word) and performs well. Once they understand block patterns, editing becomes effortless. The learning curve is mostly on the developer’s side, especially if they are used to old-school custom fields in HTML.
- “Native blocks are useless”: They easily cover 90% of a standard website’s needs. They provide all the essential primitives. Sure, complex custom designs require developer input, but building custom blocks today is nowhere near as difficult as it used to be.
- “Why do something simple when it can be difficult”: Simple doesn’t mean primitive, and Gutenberg doesn’t try to be a magic bullet for every edge case. Unlike heavy page builders that try to do everything at once and end up bloated and slow, Gutenberg requires a shift in mindset. Once you learn to work with it rather than against it, it truly shines.
