I have a guy doing some construction work for me right now and when he found out I write software he asked if I could help him out with a website.
"Ehh I don't really do that kind of software..."
If I was to give this guy a simple marketing site, that he can take to go host on his own, that I can hopefully vibe-code into existence, what should I use?
I mean, I know how to do this stuff, but handing him a node package seems wrong.
A no-code website builder, 100%. You don't want to maintain that thing. A good builder (I like framer) let's non technical people take ownership over it while still providing flexibility in UI and high speed (for SEO & bounce rate). After seeing landing pages that non tech friends have built, there's no way I'd do it from scratch. Too buggy and time consuming.
Maybe you can look at squarespace templates together, you help him obtain a domain, set it up, connect email, create the initial site for him, show him how to make changes.
These are trivial for us but for him would be a great starter and timesaver.
Consider https://www.framer.com/