Not more confident with Linux after 10 years!

I was first introduced to Linux (Debian) about 10 years ago. I remember I had really hard time to set things up and working at that time. For instance, I remember how I had to spend several days compiling a new kernel from the source to suit my hardware and consume less memory.
Well, I am afraid, after so many years things haven't improved much and I feel just little more confident to do things! recently I compiled kernel 3.1.6 for my laptop and it again took me couple of days to configure the right drivers and options and still I am having problem with the frame buffer.
The new grub2 doesn't look like the nice, but older grub at all! I just don't understand why the developers keep changing things unnecessarily! what else a boot loader is supposed to do other than booting a system? so, I am still puzzled what was missing in grub!
The point I would like to emphasize is the lack of consistency, transparency, and integrity among the Linux community. You spend a good amount of time learning how to do things and get your job done in Linux, but as soon as you start feeling like, Ok, now I know some tricks to do my job and feel confident, you realize that things are working in completely another way and your old knowledge is almost useless!
I think this is the most serious reason why Linux is not getting as much popular as it deserves. Simply, after so many years, Linux is still something you are scared to touch!