I also experienced this when trying out Hugo. I think the issue is when you go into it with the expectation of building a simple website that you build from scratch, rather than a pre-built theme. Personally, I found that Zola was much simpler for starting from scratch.
I tried both and ended up with WordPress of all things. I really don't blog and after a year without making a post I couldn't figure out my own Hugo site. I had also changed computers and my site wouldn't build anymore. I think Hugo is fantastic but probably best for regularly bloggers.
