That's definitely a huge issue. I've had the same experience of having to spend hours to a day getting my configuration set up for a new language. I think part of the problem is that there's no basic config for a language (as with other editors) from which users can tweak, mostly because anyone who tried to get vim users to standardize on any defaults other than those shipping with vim itself would be strung up and horse-whipped as a purveyor of bloat. Vim is a great editor and I love using it, but many community members have a "leet" attitude that discourages new users who need help.

It would be a whole lot easier if someone put together a set of basic configs for various languages that had language servers, completion, etc. and everyone referred new people to those. It's much easier to tweak and replace stuff than to assemble an entire config wholesale.