I have to say currently, without me going out of my way to be an idiot, I never lose fortresses, I adore strange moods and noble demands because it forces me to respond to strange situation with resources i may not have. My philosophy is this, I am going to ay a bit more then dive into mods, then Toady will release an update and I will return, but I have never faced UI difficulties. once you get a decent graphics pack the game is very easy to wrap your head around, and I have played to the point where I have all the Hot Keys memorized an I simply play full fortress view. If anything I find the UI pretty damn streamlined, and I don't want my construction done for me, sure it makes it quicker, but why would I want to remove my input from the video game that I chose to play? Hell sometimes it's fun to make your dwarves little houses instead of dorm rooms, it takes longer but the challenge often leads to some really coo looking fortresses with tons of varied different rooms, I find the game gets fairly cookie-cutter if you let it, and once you know how to win, you never lose and thus, NEVER, have fun, in either form. Because I have forts that "won", I could round up every civilian to be inside the walls, seal the fortress and Alt-Tab, come back with my grand-kids and show them the fort, the only thing stopping it would be as the Dwarves die of old age the new peasants the come from the kids will not have jobs designated. That isn't FUN, desperate sieges are FUN, Adventure and crazy megabeasts that is FUN, trying in blind desperation to meet the vague needs of a legendary Dwarf in a mood who you don't want to lose is FUN.
Yet, I find myself having to actively seek this FUN out, for as proud as the community seems to be about the game, I believe that 20 minutes of playing with that getting started wiki page open, and any player can make an exceptionally Stable fortress. The game, for me at least, is just too easy as it stands, but I have hope, mods and my love of the idea of DF will keep me playing, and thanks to Toady and the excellent modding community, and hell, the community its self, I believe DF will only keep getting better and better.