Game Design, just like any other form of art, takes time, skill, and patience. Unreal is by far the most powerful engine (just look at Mass Effect 1 - 3 vs Mass Effect Andromeda (Cryengine)) and yes, it has more features and design elements than one dev may ever use in one single game. Keep in mind though, UE is build as a framework, and not meant to be a GameMake 8 or FPS Creator. The tools they give are designed to be built upon. For example, the damage (AnyDamage event, Received Any Damage function, etc…) is great for simple damage mechanics, but for projects like the one I am working on require me to run a Switch (returns a different execution output for each of my Enums for the types of damage) and return the Damage Type, then I run individual scripts from the Enemy parent blueprint that either catch them on fire, bleed them, execute them, etc… Also systems like the damage system have built in measure (again simplified and must be further refined to suit your project) where you can create a Damage Type called, for example, Out of Bounds Damage, that way whenever this damage is dealt, the actor knows it is because it went out of bounds of the map. All systems in UE4 are designed by the Epic team in a manner any mechanic can be used in any game it is needed and be further refined to be used exactly how you want; otherwise, they give you all of the tools to start a system from scratch if there’s does not do what you need.
I do agree that Unreal is the hardest to learn, has the most complicated UI, and has more features than any engine has the right to; but is that bad? Game development is hard and you will have to take the hard path to learning either way. The reason there is such a learning curb for Unity to UE4, is because Unity isn’t used in virtually any games every year that get AAA status. The major engines are all difficult, and UE4 is not just for boring slow cinematic anti-action games. It was used for Gears of War 1-3, Mass Effect 1 - 3, all Bioshock games, and so much more. The reason many are slower is because Unreal allows things that no other engine is capable of OEM. You have the ability to tell a story to involve the player while retaining an incredible game even if it isn’t just the action doing it justice. UE4 allows developers to make games that movies pull from rather than vice versa. Unreal is worth every effort, and if you truly believe that you love Game Design and know it is what you want to do, your passion, you won’t give up. And just think, UE4 is the best place to go as an indie dev; Cliff Bleszinski created his game and sent it to Tim Sweeney and he decided to sell it and start the engine with him. Unreal is the best place for you because you have so much more creative control over the project, assets, and every other aspect. Plus, the updates come once every one to two months so you will be able to fix issues with great support and great customer support. Also, no other community is as helpful, supportive, and fun to talk to than that of Unreal Engine.