Why does this website require a database connection to render a static site? This trend infuriates me, and PHP developers are the worst offenders. So many PHP sites can be static assets but no, for some reason they use MySQL. Grinds my gears.
"Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—things like article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting."
So many sites run wordpress cause it's easy. Wordpress doesn't cache by default unless you run on one of the major hosts like kinsta or wp engine. Wordpress needs MySQL. Can you really fault them for picking out a standard CMS instead of rolling a static site that requires someone to be slightly technical.