Sure but it's a bit misleadingly reductive to both say that "only the end product matters, intermediate steps should just keep adapting to be the most optimal i

Sure but it's a bit misleadingly reductive to both say that "only the end product matters, intermediate steps should just keep adapting to be the most optimal in producing that product" while also complaining about the exact artifacts that are resulting from that adaptation of intermediate steps. Tooling does not get complex because engineers are somehow magically attracted to complexity. They get complex because the world is complex. To "hate [the complexity of] the tooling" is really just indirectly saying you hate the complexity of the world... which, I mean, I guess is fair, but not that interesting.