GA4 is actually the simple version of GA. Lots of stuff is hidden. So it looks lol Google did exactly what you wanted )‘simplified Analytics service’).
However, if you want an even simpler solution: Matamo is totally free as well.
Also Google seems desperate for Analytics users to send their user/customer data to Google, via "Google Signals" and User-id. Google wants this normalized. They use a murky mix of ambiguous settings and labels in Analytics to present the case for these data collection features to be activated. I recall a Google Ads account manager sent a direct email to my non-technical boss with steps for moving from UA to GA4. "You need to do these steps" it read. Step 3 was "enable Google signals". They implied it was required for GA4 when it isn't. I thought that was grubby. "Used car salesman" grubby.