I tried to make WordPress multilingual without plugins — so I built my own lightweight solution

I tried to make WordPress multilingual without plugins — and it nearly broke my site.
So I built a lightweight alternative.

I’ve been running a personal self-analysis website for a while, and eventually needed to support multiple languages.
Naturally, I started with the major multilingual plugins… and spent weeks fighting:

layout breaks

slow performance

unexpected conflicts

huge settings panels I didn’t want

the fear of updating anything

At some point I realized I was spending more time fixing the tool than building the project.

So I took a different path:
a tiny JSON-based structure that sits inside a child theme, requires no plugins, and doesn’t touch your existing design.

Over time I expanded it into a repeatable structure I could reuse across pages and languages.

Before I keep developing it further, I’d love feedback from people here:

• Does this approach make sense?
• Is a zero-plugin setup actually useful?
• What would you expect from something like this?
• Should it stay minimal, or include optional helpers?

I’ll drop a link in the comments to avoid cluttering the post.
You don’t need to buy anything — I’m just looking for honest critique from builders who’ve dealt with i18n pain in WordPress.

Thanks for taking the time,