If you can forego the few webpages and stick to just pics, I'd probably go with Picasaweb (Google's Picasa) over PhotoBucket and the like. I've got both and find Picasa easier to manage, FWIW.

I pay about $100/yr for my Host Papa web hosting, but as you say, it comes with a bunch of stuff that you don't want/need.

Still, it's nice knowing that you own the site/property and you're generally not going to be affected by big policy changes or a site shutdown. It's all a trade-off, right?