First is the idea of simple. If something has a few very well defined rules that are understood in isolation, but whose emergent behavior is beyond our ability to define, is it simple? Conway's Game of Life is somewhat the default example. 2 very simple rules (or perhaps more, depending upon specifically how you count them), but it gives rise to a Turing complete system. Math itself is another example, as mathematicians seek to find simple rules from which math arises, yet even for the subsets of math that are limited to such rules, is it really fair to call it simple?
The second idea is that of an underlying structure. Does the universe have an underlying structure, and even if it does, does that exist in side of some more foreign concept? What happens before the big bang? Why did the big bang happen when it did? Are there other universes, both from the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and universes that entirely separate from our own. These seem questions that feel almost entirely in the realm of science fiction, not physics, but there are plenty of theoretical physicists who dive into this field even though it currently doesn't produce testable hypothesis and is thus outside the scope of proper science.