Version control that is simpler to reason about, and doesn't have such complex layers of tooling underneath is quite possible. It is network effects that keep us on git.
Git is extremely easy to reason about and requires the use of a very small number of commands. It would not have become the dominant VCS if that weren't true because nobody would have switched to it.
It became the dominant version control system because (1) Linux and (2) GitHub. There were better version control systems even at the time (and better ones still now).