I'm a self-taught WordPress developer, and find it fascinating that WordPress ranks as a 'dreaded technology'. I guess it depends on your starting point in web design. I've always loved design - was never a computer geek and didn't even own a computer until into my twenties, so coding was never considered.

I started making websites directly within the WordPress framework, so haven't had the programming side of things to refer to. Along the way, I've learned PHP, JavaScript, CSS, etc., but have always considered WordPress to be fairly easy to use. Sure, there was a learning curve, but it never seemed too difficult, especially with all the tutorials & resources online.

I think from a programmer's perspective, you'd have to learn to wrangle your code into place for bespoke theme customisation, and that can be a pig, which is I guess why it's 'dreaded' in the eyes of those who are used to building from the ground-up. The trickiest part for me, as a designer, is learning to code, and troubleshoot PHP when it goes wrong, or to customise a theme/plugin .

I think the 'dread' will trend down as more people approach WordPress as designers, not coders. And this can only change going forward because it's only now a valid option for those new to website design, only lately become something of an industry standard. Youth will be presented the option of becoming a programmer or a designer, with both able to design websites, and this will fork into two distinct paths of bespoke coding, or learning WordPress from the start. Maybe the designers/WordPress developers aren't reliant on stack overflow, so don't take their surveys.

I guess it will depend on customers and what they want in the long-run, and at least WordPress can give them true ownership of their websites, which is another reason I only develop in WordPress. I do think designers have the advantage over coders, but that's probably because I'm a designer. Thanks for an interesting article!