You are right, I should have been more accurate in my depiction. Inherently technological problems require low level-technological solutions. There is no way around that.

But most complexity I see arrives from just moving data from A to B to automate everyday bureaucratic tasks or enable data analysis. And the needless complexity I encounter in such systems is just mind boggling.

Currently I am working on a government system which captures tasks for long running procedures such as approving power plants. And the way the devs are treating this system is borderline criminal, acting as if this is just another CRUD app without any structure or architecture.

The idea that abstractions have to leak is a myth. We don't need fewer abstractions, just better ones. Abstractions that don't require obscuring the low-level details (e.g. typeclass/trait systems instead of interface/impl ones) help too.