Personally, I don’t hate forging for it’s complexity, but for it’s RNG. Why can I have 5 units of “give me glow, please” and I get durability instead??? At least it isn’t Minecraft’s “Well, we’ll tell you one of the enchantments before you use up this gear & levels”, but what is happening here?
Some RNG is fine, but I wish this felt like artistry or wizardry, not… trial and error.
As a side note, maybe the video at Basic Forge Crash Course might help you with forging? Actual forging starts 8 minutes in.
I’m fortunate that “wall of text” is my preferred learning method, but for most people, making forging more intuitive, or adding a more interactive in-game tutorial would definitely be a good thing. The “get ingredients, use ingredients, make thing” journal quest doesn’t really cut it with something this complicated.