Less complicated local development w/Craft 3, is it possible?
If you're used to Local you can also use that for Craft.

Here's 2 articles to get you started:

https://medium.com/@madebyraygun/a-quick-and-easy-local-environment-for-craft-3-4fd7c7ff5815

and

https://www.tyssendesign.com.au/articles/craft/using-local-by-flywheel-with-other-cms/

I'm also hearing good things about https://ddev.readthedocs.io/en/stable/
but haven't tried that one myself.

And it looks like Pixel and Tonic have developed something of their own: Craft Nitro

https://craftcms.com/blog/craft-nitro