Webmastering – coder or designer?

I’ve always written websites by hand, using only an HTML text-based aid, like CoffeeCup‘s HTML Editor and an image editor like Adobe Photoshop. I’ve learnt new techniques as I’ve progressed, and tried to keep up. The trouble is that as websites get older, new technologies and standards arise, and you look at your code and think, “I could do this” or “I could do that” to make my life easier. But usually it would require rejigging the entire website, so you save it for the winter when you’re not training so much. You procrastinate. The longer you leave it, the older your site looks, and the more work you plan to do on it, until it reaches a point where you might as well rewrite the whole thing. So you procrastinate some more. After all, it’s hard enough generating content and keeping the whole thing up to date anyway, if it’s a regularly updated news-based site like the Tri or Jif sites. And the longer you leave it, the more you have to learn, if you want to code it by hand. The world passes you by.
Question: Would it be prudent to concentrate less on code, and more on design and function, by using, say, one of Macromedia’s products? Would I be selling out some of my geekness? I suppose you can still view and work with the code, but would you?
The big advantage is that as the software improves, you get updated, and you can work with your website in new ways, without necessarily having to sit down and learn the raw mechanics (fun as it may be). It would save me (and my clients) time.
I think I’ll have a play with some software. What do you reckon? Am I selling out, or is the product all that matters in the end? What might I lose out on?