Indeed and all languages accumulate exceptions and oddities in one form or another. The larger the speaker population the more that is true. None of them are r

Indeed and all languages accumulate exceptions and oddities in one form or another. The larger the speaker population the more that is true. None of them are really that much easier than any other, they just slot into patterns your brain already recognizes from languages you know (oh that feature is easy) vs ones you don't (oh that feature is difficult). My pet theory is the human brain is willing to deal with a certain amount of complexity in speaking and in reading/writing. Some languages consume their complexity budget in number of characters and their forms, others in their spelling. For spoken language some have lots of types of forms of address or lots of grammar cases. Others have significant formal and implied word order, use lots of accessory words, etc. When there is too much complexity in certain dimensions people naturally simplify in others. The accelerated form of this is when there is a great upheaval in society or movement of people: speakers quickly start to simplify the rules they care the least for (or convert formal spelled/spoken rules into info inferred from context).