You can see the difference from how it was for the last three years.
Around a week ago I set out to update my blog’s theme and I was able to find a quality theme and customize it to my liking without much trouble. This speaks to the big advantage of using WordPress to power your blog. It has matured so much and has an enormous user base now that if you have a need for your blog, then chances are there is a plugin or article on ways to customize it to your liking.
However popularity doesn’t come without some risk. When a product becomes as big as WordPress, your likeliness of being hit with an attack increases dramatically. The automatic background update feature has been around since WordPress 3.7 and automates the process of patching your blog with the latest security fixes and then sends you an email confirmation when it has completed. Now I have the peace of mind that my blog is staying reasonably secure.
Automation is a beautiful thing.