Reading-first layouts: measured line length, a type scale that holds up at long lengths, and article pages that stay comfortable past the first screen.
A reading-first blog in plain HTML and one stylesheet: 18 px serif at a 66-character measure, notes that sit in the margin on wide screens, article, archive and author layouts. No build step, no JavaScript, system fonts only, dark mode redrawn not inverted. Newsletter page and 404 in Pro.
Look at the article page, not the index. That is where readers spend their time, and it is the page most templates treat as an afterthought.
A comfortable measure is roughly 60 to 75 characters. Anything wider tires the eye; anything narrower breaks the rhythm. Check the template at your real article length, not with three paragraphs of filler.
The home page with compiled CSS and commercial use with a credit link. Pro has the remaining layouts and the source.
No. The download is immediate and needs no email.
Yes. The markup is plain HTML — porting it into Astro, Eleventy, Hugo or Jekyll is mechanical.
It depends on the template; the product page states it explicitly under Dark mode.