I don't agree on the buyer side. I've been involved in purchasing three homes, and while I did find my realtor's help valuable, most of the work to narrow down listings fell to me. Even when my agent pro-actively pushed listings at me, most of them I had already found on Redfin or Zillow.

The offer process can be a little confusing, but ultimately it's a bunch of standardized forms that everyone should be allowed to download from some government agency or whatever.

The negotiation process is in some ways more frustrating when having to go through intermediaries. The only value the realtor provides there is frankly pretty shady: often the two realtors (who usually know each other and have a cordial relationship) will share information about their client that they really shouldn't. I've benefited from that type of information, but have felt dirty about it.

Ultimately all the legal stuff is handled by a title company (and/or a lawyer), and the realtor isn't involved there.

I think the main places where you can get a better outcome with a realtor are due to industry protectionism, not anything inherently difficult about the process that requires a trained, licensed agent with insider information.