It really depends what you make of a CMS. As a designer / developer I really like the WordPress platform and find it incredibly flexible and powerful. As long as used in the right way, WordPress can be adapted into a great CMS solution - I've never had any issues explaining to clients how to use it. Of course there will be some develops who don't like it, but most of the developers I know love using it and would recommend it. Its got a good reputation because clients general love using it - of course it wouldn't be able to be so big and successful if it was total rubbish. Its a case of learning and understanding how it works, then its realy easy to use and very rewarding. Obviously if you dont quite know what you are doing with it then of course the end result is going to be far from perfect. There are other CMS solutions out there which might be better for say a small 5 page brochure website but I would still strongly consider using WordPress.