Comment by Anotheroneagain

Complexity is anything that makes it hard to understand and modify a system.

I disagree with this. It's overwhelmingly more difficult to design something simple, or modify it so that it stays simple. Coming up with complex solutions is easy, the cost is the time and resources it takes to deal with that monster. Somebody has to read all that, walk through all that, and machine all that, and assemble all that.

Much of progress comes from figuring out simple solutions to problems, which frees up time and resources for other things. It must, in the end take less effort to make and operate the machine than doing it by hand, no matter how much it may seem to the contrary, because otherwise it wouldn't be worth it.