How many people are already using ad blockers and such? This move to sending updates via email and push notifications clogs my inbox so frequently I end up unsubscribing.
I can't read the article because of a paywall. If only there was some sort of token gated system to let me connect to the site and view it without an account that hands them my personal/cc data.
I've been using write.as for several months now and it's worked great as a blog-only platform. They have a self hosted option called writefreely as well.
I think some folks feel a blog needs a ton of branding and fancy javascript widgets everywhere to be a "blog" when all you need is a block of easily read text.