That said, in philosophy I often have the feeling that some "common sense" view I hold is more accurate than the rigorous, less clear views that I'm studying. Almost always, there turn out to be problems with my common sense view that weren't obvious to me at the outset, and necessitate the extra rigor and abstraction.

The unfortunate bit is that if you don't "study" (as you put it), you'll never notice these little flaws, and go on thinking that people are intentionally overcomplicating things. (Made worse by the fact that certain people actually are overcomplicating things -- but that's not evidence against the fact that many things are, in fact, complicated)