Yeah I really like Astro too, I often just start with the minimal template [1] that is just a couple of files. I used to do many experiments with custom SSG some time ago but since Astro came out I can't change back anymore.

If you don't want js on the frontend you can just use it as a nice html templating engine. It also renders markdown automatically for you as it recognizes different formats by the file extension.

[1]: https://github.com/withastro/astro/tree/main/examples/minima...