What you said is purely anecdotal. Here's another anecdote I think worth mentioning (it is from a Haskeller who has spent years teaching Haskell to kids):

https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/3pfg7x/either_and_...

> this experience has taught me that whenever functional programmers claim that certain things are only unintuitive because programmers have had their minds polluted by non-Haskell programming languages... they are usually wrong.

> the more common claims you see about how purely functional programming is easier and more intuitive for students without previous imperative programming languages. Surprisingly, that's not the case. Even in situations where I don't expect it, I'm constantly fighting everyone's urge to think about situations first and foremost in imperative terms.

I think it's safer to assume that functional approaches have inherent complexity compared to imperative approaches. YMMV, of course.