I'm entirely new to the game and the ease of starting out surprised me, too.
DF has a reputation of being extremely hard and unforgiving, but so far I didn't actually lose a game.
I usually go 1-3 years in experimenting with different things before abandoning and starting fresh.
In the first few games I didn't even know how happiness works, still never seen a tantrum spiral.
I still don't know how military works and didn't create any traps, all the action I've seen was a weremongoose attack in ~15 games.
The embark sites are mostly untamed wilderness, didn't have any problems with wild animals.
The only comparable game I'm familiar with nowadays is Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. That one has a ridiculous
learning curve, too (new players could take months or even years to actually win their first game, if ever).
I remember getting my ass kicked to hell and back starting out, took me a week to even reach the temple, an early point of interest.
That's why it's extremely rewarding when you can win 1 in every 3-4 game (some guys got so good they can
win ~95%, going on 15-20 game streaks).
On another note, why are trees dangerous? I mostly embark on heavily forested areas but didn't notice anything so far.