I'm not being sarcastic. It is what I've done for 20+ years (although I only switched from thttpd to nginx in ~2010). The linked article does not really teach you how to use hugo. It just shows how to generate a single page, and there are far better ways to do that.

And like others have said, nginx comes with server side includes built in. It's the perfect amount of dynamic templating power with the minimal attack surface. Before anyone jumps in with, "but I can deploy (or other cargo cult terms) my website to a CDN if I use Hugo for templating." I question the utility and complexity of bringing in a CDN in this, minimum viable context or any personal website context.