(you can run WordPress locally to generate the site, or use a 3rd party service just to run the process but not serve from it).
The hacker solution that the Chief Technology Officer of Amazon uses is much more a "power to the people" approach.
I gave the WPEngine link just to prove people are doing it with WordPress and it's not a pipedream.
The author obviously don't want to compile the site as it takes too long for him, so compiling a wordpress blog would not yield any time benefits.
(you can run WordPress locally to generate the site, or use a 3rd party service just to run the process but not serve from it).