I've just recently started by adult blog, but i"ve got several other blogs for other industry type affiliate programs and I can say without a doubt, wordpress is by superior to the other blog software that generates html or php pages. I'm talking about typepad or moveabletype whatever it's called from sixapart:
http://www.movabletype.org/ This blog software actually generates html pages or php if you so designate. The issue with this software is that is regenerates EVERY page every time you update, so if you were to have 10000 entries and each one has it's own page, during generation, your server or something is going to time out. I'd hope they've fixed this by now because I haven't used it in some time because of this. The other con was that it costs me like $129 for an unlimited license where wordpress is free. WPs huge following it really going to help you out which is free and there's tons of plugins for just about everything you've ever wanted...I know this thread isn't a comparison about the two, but you mentioned html pages and moveabletype is a blog script that will generate html pages. I'd stay database driven, it's better performance. Just my 2 1/2 cents.