To what extent am I missing out when I move to ClassicPress?

Just… there are 290 pages worth of functions in the ClassicPress documentation and it’s not easy to sift through. I see that ClassicPress trails back as far as pre-5.0, but of course it’s being maintained for security by this project. Is it actively and aggressively maintained?

I would not be migrating any websites thankfully, just going forward with ClassicPress on some future development projects. Part of my reasoning is that I’d like to be less plugin-dependent, in the case of those you find on the web - namely at WordPress.org. I’d like to see the direction of Gutenberg but it certainly just isn’t quite there yet so I don’t really want to offer it - it’s beta. I’m thinking why not just ship with ClassicPress in mind?

What is good with ClassicPress? Are the plugins hosted just a pool of the plugins that worked pre-5.0?

How hard is it to make the switch from current WordPress independent of unsupported plugins?

ClassicPress in short is just WP 4.9 (or WP without blocks)
There is a small directory of plugins developed for CP here. This directory will be released in the dashboard starting from CP v2 and will allow plugin management in CP.
As concerns WP repos, plugins working up to WP 4.9 should work with CP and the same is valid for themes too.
A CP v2 is in the works, based on the WP 6 codebase stripped of all the block stuff and keeping all security and libraries advancements; this means that in V2 plugins working with WP 5 and higher should work.
You can install CP manually or via Softaculous or via Installatron.
Migrating a site is just as easy as installing ClassicPress by means of the Migration plugin, that as of now allows migrating from WP 6.2 websites. It is advised however that you backup your site and check plugin and theme compatibility before migrating so that you can select alternatives for them if they aren’t compatible with CP.
You can safely use ClassicCommerce + CC Compat Plugin instead of WooCommerce and ClassicSEO instead of Rankmath for example.

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Are the plugins listed on this site at all supported, stable and/or maintained for security - is anybody maintaining or vetting these plugin versions or are they provided as they were? This is one of my qualms about taking the “Wayback Machine” to WordPress 4.9. I did just install PHP 8.0 as I see that’s where ClassicPress currently is in development. I do plan on giving ClassicPress a fair shot as I can see the CMS itself is being updated and code is at least being backported. I just would like to know if I might want to withhold on the tendency to some of the plugins.

Also, thanks to Elisabetta!

The plugins in the WP repos working with WP 4.9 are safe and maintained.
The plugins in CP dir have been selected, are maintained and secure.
I advise to be careful with WP repos. Honestly I trust CP plugins more.