Question: Do I really need a theme? Can’t I just create it myself?

Answer: At present, Yes, WordPress requires a theme in order to work. You can try to create it yourself but…

there’s more to it than that.

• You could start with a completely empty unstyled theme but it wouldn’t look nice and you wouldn’t be able to just start writing.
• By providing templates and template parts a theme can help your visitors navigate your site.
• And the styling in the global styles file ( theme.json ), which may be supported by additional styling in `style.css`, should save you having to style everything yourself.
• A theme may also provide patterns to help you create your content.

You wouldn’t want to create a fully functional eCommerce site without a little bit of help. So pick a FSE theme you like the look of and extend it or change it to satisfy your needs.

There’s an awful lot a theme can do to make your life easier.