Self-custody only feels too complicated because we try to teach beginners everything at once. Most of it should be gradual, not upfront.
If the UX is right, users don’t need to think about seed phrases, derivation paths, or address types on day one, I just like people use banking apps without knowing how SWIFT works.
The real risk isn’t complexity, it’s pushing users back to exchanges because onboarding is too hard. However, good platforms exists that’s heavy on letting users keep custody while still accessing more utility without friction.
Bitcoin isn't a banking system where you get baby sit and pampared because everything you do rely on the security and once it's compromised, you will lose everything you have worked so hard to build to be a Bitcoiner which is why you see self custody get alot of attention and there is nothing too hard nor complicated for beginner. It's simple, create a wallet and copy the seed phrase offline and it's all, the other things you mentioned can be learned later.
Good wallets especially hot wallets most often doesn't fancy UI, just something good where you can see balance, have simple feature of things like coin control, some do add server or network configuration, add multiple wallets and that's all, other things are additional features to make people want to use the wallet. Good wallets don't have time for heavy features, some developers prefer clients to be simple and light as possible, not all these designs that are not needed.
