This is true for Angular as well. To use the framework you don't need to understand everything it provides. In https://angular.io/start we're aiming to reduce the initial conceptual overhead.

We understand that we can work on simplifying the mental model of Angular. This is something we're working towards. We're careful with in process though because we want to provide a consistent, backwards compatible development experience.

You have a looser definition of "to use" than me. Let's agree to disagree.

If your definition of usage excludes the hordes of feature-rich production React codebases with no hooks (hooks being a relatively recent React addition), I'd call that definition...counter intuitive.