In a way, Arch is easier than Debian.
Sure, with Arch you have to do everything yourself. But that means you're the only one messing with it.
You can do whatever weird setup you want, and you don't have to worry that something will try to change it later and break it.
OTOH, in Debian, there is always something trying to do things for you, thay will happily "fix" whatever you changed. You have to constantly be aware of the packagers' assumptions and try to not violate them.