To run Ghost, you need a server to host it on, and enough knowledge to set it up and manage it. You need some level of sysadmin skills just to understand the install instructions.
A PHP application can be dropped on any $2/month shared hosting account over FTP. That's the extent of the installation, and the host will support it for you. Even cheap unmanaged shared hosts will troubleshoot setting up PHP code for customers.
Ghost can only be set up by people that frequent sites like HN. A PHP app can be set up by anyone. That's why over 40 million people use WordPress where maybe 20k have used something like Jekyll.
For most people, I'm not sure that no FTP access is the dealbreaker it once was. I'm not saying that there's not validity in creating an alternative designed for PHP, but this criticism of Ghost doesn't ring particularly true to me for this reason: Ghost has had a total of four months on the market. Give it a year and see if the process is any easier. I'm going to say it might be.
While not quite the same as having FTP access Ghost do offer hosted blogs from only $5 per month. Anyone that can set up a WordPress.com blog should find Ghost just as easy.
The Ghost Foundation is a UK organisation and I can assure you that USD is not the default currency here. If they're willing to make the effort to accept USD, I'm sure there are plenty of bloggers able to make the effort to pay using it.
Regardless, USD is the de facto standard for SAAS payments (whether this is good or bad is a discussion for another time). If you can't pay in USD then you'll find a substantial proportion of services unavailable to you.
A PHP application can be dropped on any $2/month shared hosting account over FTP. That's the extent of the installation, and the host will support it for you. Even cheap unmanaged shared hosts will troubleshoot setting up PHP code for customers.
Ghost can only be set up by people that frequent sites like HN. A PHP app can be set up by anyone. That's why over 40 million people use WordPress where maybe 20k have used something like Jekyll.