Also same experience here. I can write UART code with DMA in 20 lines of code on an STM32 microcontroller. Same functionality using HAL is astonishingly cumbers

Also same experience here. I can write UART code with DMA in 20 lines of code on an STM32 microcontroller. Same functionality using HAL is astonishingly cumbersome. The reference manual and willingness to read it is all you need.