In my experience there is absolutely nothing "simple" about a static website, especially one that is going to be used by other people. If it was my personal blog or something, sure. A website for a non-technical friend with a business who wants to be able to post updates, etc? Omg no. No no no no no.

Good managed wordpress starts at like $10-20/month. All those problems you mention go away, you can even do things like rollbacks if someone breaks something. If what you want to do fits into what WP can do pretty well, it's a no-brainer.