[roland35]

Stm32 cube mx is the newest version of the framework, but the old peripheral driver library is a bit simpler and easier to use! It is more low level and a light layer over the hardware.

The new cube library can be more complex.

[leggomylibro]

The new cube libraries do include two abstraction layers, though. I agree that the "HAL" libraries can be very confusing because they try to do everything for you with endlessly nesting functions and macros, but the "LL" (Low-Level) ones are closer to the old peripheral driver libraries.