Creating a blog post archive at /blog/ without awkwardly publishing a page

blog-archive.php

<?php

add_filter( 'register_post_type_args', function( $args, $post_type ) {
	global $wp_rewrite;
	if ( 'post' === $post_type && ! is_null( $wp_rewrite ) ) {
		$archive_slug = 'blog';
		// Setting 'has_archive' ensures get_post_type_archive_template() returns an archive.php template.
		$args['has_archive'] = $archive_slug;
		// We have to register rewrite rules, because WordPress won't do it for us unless $args['rewrite'] is true.
		$archive_slug = $wp_rewrite->root . $archive_slug;
		add_rewrite_rule( "{$archive_slug}/?$", "index.php?post_type=$post_type", 'top' );
		$feeds = '(' . trim( implode( '|', $wp_rewrite->feeds ) ) . ')';
		add_rewrite_rule( "{$archive_slug}/feed/$feeds/?$", "index.php?post_type=$post_type" . '&feed=$matches[1]', 'top' );
		add_rewrite_rule( "{$archive_slug}/$feeds/?$", "index.php?post_type=$post_type" . '&feed=$matches[1]', 'top' );
		add_rewrite_rule( "{$archive_slug}/{$wp_rewrite->pagination_base}/([0-9]{1,})/?$", "index.php?post_type=$post_type" . '&paged=$matches[1]', 'top' );
	}
	return $args;
}, 10, 2 );
add_filter( 'post_type_archive_link', function( $link, $post_type ) {
	if ( 'post' === $post_type ) {
		$link = home_url( 'blog/' );
	}
	return $link;
}, 10, 2 );