Well, that's a function of the complexity and the customisation of your site.
You use 70+ modules? Probably some custom work as well. There's just no easy way to get that. Drupal or no Drupal. You can DIY, which comes with its own troubles.
You could probably do a lot of what you do for free in a couple of hours with Slinkset or a few days with a custom reddit. But if you want to define so much functionality exactly the way you want it, you have complexity.
No way around it.
That said, it does "suck" in many ways. For example: http://drupal.org/node/65922
I build WindyCitizen in Drupal 5 because when I started, 18 months ago, Drupal 6 was still just a baby release and most major modules hadn't yet been upgraded.
I'm now at the point where I need to upgrade the service to D6 to continue getting new releases of modules I'm using. Unfortunately, upgrading a 70+ module Drupal site is a major undertaking that appears to require a team of developers. One to follow the instructions and another to clean up and troubleshoot the exploding messes that result from following said instructions. I put myself in this position by choosing Drupal, but having to raise money to hire people to help upgrade your site is not my idea of a good time.