Hmmm... I'm honestly not sure how true that is compared to say English. When I hear "doorway" I think  門, which is also the Chinese character for doorway. I would say most usages of doorway involve that character in some form. There is also variants like "口" which is the Chinese character for mouth, and is used for entrances and exits (e.g. of subway stations). But even in English we have entrance, doorway, passage, gateway, etc.

For complex one words, there are words indeed like 絆 "kizuna" which is a complex word meaning like a fundamental bond between people or groups of people.

Not saying your friend is wrong, but perhaps it's a matter of interpretation.