It's true that basically every language (except Rust?) has nightmarish package/environment management/tooling ecosystem problems. Why is this, anyway? It's a little nuts that it's easier to learn how to code than it is to figure out how to install a module.

Right now you can click File > Swift Packages > Add Package Dependency and let SPM handle it for you without thinking. I know not every package supports SPM yet but it's clearly the path forward and something everyones working towards. I think the other point I've found doing both web and iOS is you don't need any dependencies to get started on iOS, a hello world app is as straightforward as opening XCode, creating a new project and plugging in your phone.

I don't know. I think both of the examples you provided really require less perseverance and are more of an analysis paralyis issue.

In John's case, even after he got some help he still couldn't set up and run the project which is really frustating.