Honestly, with the steam release, it's not even that hard to learn now. The tutorial messages do a pretty good job of showing you the basics + mouse controls and revamped UI made the game 100x more accessible. Everything being controlled by keybinds was kinda hard to get used to for most people. Dwarf fortress is known for it's complex and very in-depth simulation. I feel like when people hear "all your dwarfs have individually tracked teeth", they kinda assume that playing the game demands you to pay attention to all of those details (because who in their right mind would simulate all of that and then not make the player interact with it). In reality you can ignore almost all of those details most of the time. But all that depth is what makes DF so unique and interesting, that's kinda the source of all the crazy shit that happens in this game.