this doesn't really make sense to me. most people have pretty simple tax situations. no matter how much you pay your accountant, there aren't many loopholes for

this doesn't really make sense to me. most people have pretty simple tax situations. no matter how much you pay your accountant, there aren't many loopholes for a W-2 employee to exploit. "easy tax filing" doesn't have to mean that the government guarantees an absolutely optimal filing (how could it? it's not clear to me that it understands its own rules without ambiguity). it could instead mean that your return gets prepopulated with the most obvious filing strategy for your situation. for most people, the obvious way would be the same as the optimal way, and people with weird situations could keep doing their own taxes.