OK, let’s try to explain that with clear words. First of all, your impression about WordPress is right : WordPress is suitable to build website and not just blogs.
WordPress, like any other CMS, use a database to achieve a clear separation between content and presentation. HTML / CSS has failed to achieve that properly because each time you want to change you website design, you have to change the HTML, no matter how well coded it was on the first place. Basically (this description is not complete, but you can get the big picture) WordPress stores the content of the website (pages, navigation menu, sidebar elements, …) in the database, whereas display and presentation is done by the theme. That way, you can change your website design by activating a new theme without touching to the pages content.
jQuery Mobile is a frontend framework, so it is not incompatible with WordPress which runs on the backend. A wisely coded theme, or a use of the REST API, could make it possible to use jQuery Mobile as a frontend display, and WordPress as a backend to manage and edit the content.
I want to create a site with basic menu structure, the ability to list/display articles well, the ability to take questions and feedback and put up a FAQ
This type of website is easy to build with WordPress. Depending on your exact needs, you could create a custom content type called “FAQ” and use it to display a FAQ page, search through the questions and answers, or display the most popular questions.
Adding a donation link is also a common use case. You could use a widget to put it in your sidebar for example.