Those poor Lighthouse scores are what you get when you put no work into refining your site's performance. This is especially true for an out-of-the-box Wordpress implementation. I have a React project with 100s across the board, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend a React implementation if high performance is key.

This doesn't even touch upon the topic of good developer performance, which is just as important as a set of Lighthouse scores. It's far easier to jump into an app with established build tools and documentation than it is to wade through a block of static HTML. Though if you're the only one working in your zen garden, have at it.