Yeah the Arduino libraries are a big help and let you get off the ground quickly. But the point I'm trying to make is that unless you're manually translating as

Yeah the Arduino libraries are a big help and let you get off the ground quickly. But the point I'm trying to make is that unless you're manually translating assembly instructions into opcodes, you're relying on some layer of "magic" somewhere to make your life easier. I don't really consider it "less complex" so much as "hiding complexity that most mere mortals won't care about".