Making the user manually escape parameters (and be very careful not to miss any) seems at odds with the goals of ease of use and maintainability. Most template libraries do this automatically by default.
1. minimalism 2. ease of use
It's an uneasy balance. I am well aware of the value of fully-powered templating engines.
I don't even think this violates your prioritization because it should result in less code when considering an app in its entirety (framework + logic).