It's a 5 minute process, and there's very little to it that it's not optimized for ease. Any champ can do it, and millions do.
Not sure what you're on about.
>I think that's marketing, and not borne out of real experience.
Yes, all those people are delluded.
And good luck if you're setting up a family account for several devices with different iOS versions. You're gonna really need it.
I've tried it tons of times, have over 20 iOS/macOS devices over the years, and for some pervese reason, on macOS/OS X I like to install every major update on a clean disk too (and then re-import my data. It's an old Windows 95/XP-era reflex), so I do it at least once every year for my main driver (plus different new iOS devices).
What part of this sounds difficult?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70u0x8Kf6j4
And the whole "optimized for selling you bullshit Apple services" is a couple of screens you can skip with one click -- and you might want to legitimately use too.
I think that's marketing, and not borne out of real experience.
Try setting up a new Apple device, there is very little in IT that is as frustrating and confusing.