Post author here: this post is a bit dated, and I need to update it. While the CSS grid trick works fine, hopefully, very soon, there'll be better ways to animate an element's height.
Chromium is shipping `interpolate-size` already, which enables transitioning from/to `height: auto`. Webkit and Firefox still have to agree with this web platform addition, but I'm optimistic. So let's hope!
It should definitely take a responsive design into account, I think. The beauty is that most sites, on desktop at least, should be able to benefit — we all have plenty of horizontal real-estate to spare!
There are several use cases for static sites that are not docs. It is true though, that the user base is more developer oriented. This is because we don't have this easy/rich "install a theme" for the static site world (yet).
When you want to have a custom, well performing and secure site with a server-side CMS that renders HTML you need developers, too. And you have to maintain the system constantly.
Static sites have low maintenance, are fast and don't need updates. These are things only developers care about. ;)
And with services like e.g. Contentful (disclaimer – I work for Contentful) you can edit the content in a familiar interface, rebuild your site immediately when content changes (via web hooks) and don't have to worry about any system updates or response times. And it doesn't feel static. ;)
Chromium is shipping `interpolate-size` already, which enables transitioning from/to `height: auto`. Webkit and Firefox still have to agree with this web platform addition, but I'm optimistic. So let's hope!