Bitcoin is complex; I think most of us will agree on that. Complexity has been reduced with new standards and protocols, a magical threshold of simplicity is unlikely without trusting a third party.
It is easy enough to use it well without mistakes. It does not requires too much in storage if you use SPV wallet software like Electrum wallet. [1, 2]
Just use self custody wallets and if they are open source, you are doing good practice.
[1] https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/spv.html
[2] [Guide] Verify Electrum wallet
It is not complex for a tech savvy person like you but to those who are lacking in technical knowledge, installing electrum, creating address, sending transaction and securing Bitcoin will be a challenged for them. Not all people have the basic knowledge about Bitcoin and how it works and most of these people find it difficult to understand things in the beginning. Sadly people give up after experiencing any form of difficulty since for them it is not a matter of life and death and their life will move on regardless they learn about Bitcoin or not.
I also agree that with the mindset I stated, people who wanted to proliferate the Bitcoin adoption, they must create a way where people thinks that there is a need for them to hold BTC. It can be done by simply laying plans and creating places where one can have a real use case of BTC.