True, but it's not IMPOSSIBLE to wrangle.
One requirement is being comfortable with the command line. That is mandatory.
Otherwise, you can follow the installation instructions on the Arch Wiki and do a search for any errors you encounter. There have been plenty of people who did the same thing.
Any distro is good for programming. All you need is an idea, an internet connection and a text editor. This can be accomplished in Arch, Ubuntu, Debian, Manjaro or even Gentoo.