Looking for alternative workflow methods to pagebuilder

Hello. I have been using the page builder elementor plug in with generate press.

I am still new to wordpress though and am wondering what are some recommended ways to customize my generatepress theme other than using a page builder. I want to avoid relying on plugins so I can handle the code myself as well as avoid unnecessary bloat.

Do people write html/css/javascript in a code editor like dreamweaver, then copy and paste that directly into the wordpress?

And if so, is it common practice to use a framework like w3css/bootstrap/materializecss or is it best to create the framework from scratch for each site you make?

I did see the Lightweight Grid Columns and Simple CSS plugins made by Tom Usborne. Those do look great, but at the same time I am trying to avoid using any plug-ins I don't need to. So using plugins just to add CSS and handle grid columns seems like an unnecessary addition compared to the other options I had mentioned?

Sorry about my ignorance on the matter, its hard to get a sense of what are popular methods when it seems to change so frequently.

Thanks for your expertise.