'Complexity versus simplicity' has been a big issue, going back to the early stages of Modern Society.

Carl Linneaus can be posed as merely 'using' biology - the plants & animals of the world - to pursue a more fundamental focus, which was per se taxonomy, as a case of systematics, more generally.

Following the adoption of Linneaus' work, there soon emerged a major intellectual struggle known as Lumpers vs Splitters, which raged among scientists and scholars for generations. This is indeed a current source of distress, in the Wikipedia community itself (who are specialists in taxonomy & systematics, 'by definition').

So ... this issue that comes up around the WordPress project, with arguments & counter-arguments made on the pros and cons of simplicity vs complexity, is not something that arose with computers, or databases, or the need to organize content within websites running on WordPress. Oh, no.
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Before I decided that a blogware such as early WordPress had better potential as a long-term Content Management System than other website software titles that self-consciously aimed at the CMS role, I had also installed, used, and studied the database structures of eg Xoops, phpWebsite, and several others big & small.

The complexity of the relational tables that comprise the data structure on which CMS commonly run, in & of itself tends to become so daunting & esoteric, as to subvert the original intention & goal. Which was to tame the complexities of the organization, navigation and presentation of the Content, itself. The "solution" tends to join with & reinforce the "problem", rather than serving to resolve it.

When I saw how few & transparent the data-tables of WordPress were, and that it clearly intended to move beyond the chronological format of classic blogware, to offer the functions of real CMS from this more comprehensible data-foundation ... I concluded that the author & leader of WP had identified the key problem that had been a deterrent to more widespread adoption of a standardized website solution, by the emerging web-culture.

Hefty commercial, business and institutional uses of such a 'rationalized' CMS-approach were also enhanced under the new WordPress model ... and it is they who provide the funding that pays the bills.