It is, but it's like "dotnet new" templates: a means of getting to a working minimal setup that jumps through the Microsoft hoops for you. MSIX and Package Identity are definitely headaches to get set up.
Yes, Package Identity was the bane of my existence for a while. It's wild how MS gated important APIs behind it and then made it so difficult+impractical to work with (I honestly think this is a large part of why WinRT was mostly ignored by developers).
I've moved on, but this looks like it will at least fix some of the paper cuts.
I've moved on, but this looks like it will at least fix some of the paper cuts.