Yeah, unfortunately a lot of developers make their releases exclusively for server admins rather than tenants. I’m sure it’s a lot easier for them, plus times have just run away from shared hosting but I sort of wish for the ease of a 5-minute, browser based install like Wordpress’.
Edited to add: Depending on your host and whether Nextcloud will run on it, there’s a chance to offer your family simple file sharing? Otherwise basic bookmarking sites like Shaarli will run on shared php hosting as well.
It’s not exactly industrial grade social media but micro services can be fun as well. Otherwise you can customize Wordpress quite a lot beyond just blogging.