Games are rediculously complex perhaps, and I think UE4 saves you from a lot of it while also giving low level access if you need it. One could call it bloated, but it's bloated like django is bloated, which is to say it has batteries and a lot of other stuff included.
1) Lots of nested menus. A class has multiple tabs, sometime with nested levels of information about them and it was easy to get lost in regard to where you actually were.
2) It felt hard to "find the code" that actually made stuff happen.
But neither bothers me now. Just bite the bullet and watch a basic make-a-game tutorial and you'll get the gist.
I agree I imagine it would be very confusing for someone to pick up today. The cinema stuff wasn't in it really at the start, neither was really terrain, or VR. Everything was simpler. In a lot of ways, it's still all there, but there are layers of new stuff on top and some stuff completely new as "the new standard".
It's one of those "you had to be there" and it's tough to get into it today. But given enough time, you will find your way and selectively ignore the stuff you won't touch.
I wouldn't say it's difficult to learn UE4 but I think it is overly complex which can be a high barrier. I've used it and unity for years. Opening unity is generally less mental fatigue, like walking into an ordered office, whereas unreal is like falling into someone's messy room.
On the other hand i found Unity much easier to learn.
The only app framework I can grok properly is Flutter.