This has been the standard uninformed take on Emacs since dawn of the web, and unfortunately seems to be getting more popular. In reality Emacs is great out of

This has been the standard uninformed take on Emacs since dawn of the web, and unfortunately seems to be getting more popular. In reality Emacs is great out of the box, you don't really spend time setting up things, you spend time understanding how it works, and become more capable as you do. If you use Emacs for three weeks in your life it's obviously not worth it and you tend to get opinions like yours. The sane take as in most or all things is listen to people with the most experience.