I was really disappointed when GitHub Actions didn't more closely resemble Drone CI. Drone's configuration largely comes down to a Docker container and a script to run in said Docker container.
Not familiar with Drone but just pointing out Github Actions can be used for lots of stuff besides CICD. That's just the most popular and obvious usage.
I actually prefer being able to grab some existing actions plugins rather than having to write every single build step into a shell script like with eg. Aws codePipeline for every app. You don't have to use them, though. You could have every step be just shell commands with Github Actions.
Drone is the ultimate example of simplicity in CI. Automatic VCS-provider OAuth, automatic authorization for repos/builds, native secrets, plugins are containers, server configuration is just environment variables, SQL for stateful backend, S3 for logs, and a yaml file for the pipelines. There's really nothing else to it. And when you need a feature like dynamic variables, they support things you're already familiar with, like Bourne shell parameter expansion. Whoever created it deeply understands KISS.
I think the only reason it doesn't take over the entire world is the licensing. (It's not expensive at all considering what you're getting, but most companies would rather pay 10x to roll their own than admit that maybe it's worth paying for software sometimes)
