Setting up a registry is easy and actually pretty fun. You can even run it in a docker container (https://hub.docker.com/_/registry)! The complicated/non-trivial part is getting a front-end set up if you want more than the command line. I would recommend most people at least keep backups of their important images in a private registry. It really doesn't take much to keep one running, and you're covered if Docker Hub has an outage.

For most people's needs, command line access to the registry is more than enough though. There are a couple of options out there already for a registry web UI, but I've never had the chance to use any.