Fantasy
I've made sites from scratch as well, but the general approach today is templates. And nobody really bothers about optimisation nowadays either. Which is a crying shame.
Overall, it is, of course better to make a site from scratch, and it would be much better to do so for a beginner, in my opinion, to understand all the nuances of the sitebuilding.
However, if someone just wants a site and doesn't feel the need to add sitebuilding to his set of skills, starting with a template is a fast and acceptable solution.
