DNS really is pretty easy. The problem is that Bind zone files are an absolutely godawful interface which makes it seem 10x harder than it actually is. I'm not too upset about it (because it's free software and I figure I can't complain too much), but compare to other DNS solutions and it's night and day how easy they are. For example, running a Windows DNS server (while not something you'd do at home) is dead simple because Microsoft has polished up the user experience. I'm sure some more polished alternatives exist for Linux too, I'm just not familiar enough with what's out there to point to one as an example.