I bit the bullet, and learned FreeCAD, and it wasn't easy. There are plenty of YouTube videos to watch a few times and try to see what's going on. The key realization for me was I could actually just draw boxes, lines, etc. Later, you can add constraints to them to get the right size, add symmetry, etc.

The reason I went with FreeCAD is because there is an available Gear Generator workbench, and I wanted to have something I could keep, without having to pray Autodesk still likes me next year.

Now, if you want to just 3d sculpt things, there are simple programs that let you push and pull shapes, rotate, rinse and repeat, like Windows Paint 3D.