Yes, I really agree, and I've gone through the same pain, but try using the alternatives that claim to be better because they have OpenAPI specifications [1]
The example shows you how to use the swagger tool, parse the OpenAPI spec [2], auto-generate GoLang glue code, call __one__ of those auto-generated functions and log a trace.
However, there is zero documentation, zero other examples, and I'm left scratching my head whether there's even one person in the world using this approach. I eventually ended up just directly using the service APIs [3] via REST calls.
OTEL is painful, but the alternatives are no better :( I really wish there's some interest in this space, since SLO's and SLI measurements are becoming increasingly important.
[1] https://github.com/openzipkin/zipkin-api-example
[2] https://github.com/openzipkin/zipkin-api/blob/master/zipkin2...