Not really, most of the complexity is of the ill-thought design they started with, and the LACK of options for certain things.
Initially the envisioned CSS as a styling technology, so layout was an afterthought. Even the messy floats hacks (those one that replaced tables) wasn't something that was though of specifically as a complete layout solution.
We had to wait 10+ years, to have actual layout solutions catering to the needs of web designers: Flexbox, Regions, Multi-Column layout and Grid Layout -- and of course those are still not implemented totally by browser vendors, give a few years wait for that too.
EDIT: I mean, what freedom would have been lost when it was designed to work like this, not talking of changing it now.
.outer {height: 1200px; width: 800px;}
.inner {margin: auto;}
<div class="outer">
<p class="inner">This is centered vertically</p>
<p>But where should this go?</p>
</div>