You are probably a Javascript dev, not doing typescript? Classes were horrible to type for, especially when you tried higher-order components. Hooks removed so much clutter and friction and allows pretty well-typed components and higher order functions (i.e. hooks that return components).
Hooks made simple things simpler, but hard things harder, code with lots of boilerplate was replaced with code with leaky abstractions full of various workarounds - I don't think this is a good trade.
While I hate class component lifecycle methods they are much better than complex hook setups when solving more advanced problems.
Just having an interval inside a component used to be trivial, but with hooks becomes tedious. Only the barebones simple ultra basic stuff became simple. Everything else? Harder.
I am all around developer, working with typescript from at least 2015.
I’m not exactly sure what complication you mean. Lifecycle method sucks, yeah, but you replaced them with lifecycle hooks. So the same mental overhead but now in a pseudo stateless functions, with state full escape hatches.
Yes, they were uglier but they had advantages that got lost such as an easy to control rendering life cycle.
Just opening dev tools on MIT-written big tech corps and startups confirms nobody is able to write good websites or applications that arent filled with performance and memory leaks.