Out of all the problems of TeX/LaTeX, the worst I found is that subscripts and superscripts visually dominate the line noise when they ought to be less visible than the main content. I think your example helps to illustrate that by the equations I tended to typeset where way worse for that problem. (But I only dipped my toe in properly programming it like OP, which I realise is even worse.)
This is really solved by the graphical equation editor in LyX. I wrote my master's thesis and PhD thesis using it, having previously written an undergrad thesis in raw LaTeX. When I switched, I was part way through writing up notes for a masters course and ended up rewriting them in LyX (sadly its LaTeX import is terrible). I found that I was able to write notes faster by a factor of 3! And I honestly was no LaTeX novice, it just really is less efficient. I shudder to imagine how long I would've spent on my PhD thesis without LyX.
The mistake people make with LyX is assuming it is for beginners trying to avoid LaTeX (and it does partly market itself that way). I consider it the opposite: it's best suited to those who already fully understand LaTeX. You still need to dip into it occasionally to edit the preamble or stick in the odd little snippet of manual LaTeX (that's ERT in LyX terminology). And while typesetting errors are much rarer with LyX (it's much harder to forget a closing brace when you don't put them in in the first place), when they do occur it's because something has gone really wrong so you better know what's going on.