And all programming itself is is turning strings of 1s and 0s into other strings of 1s and 0s.

Asking web dev to be less complex is like asking financial markets to be simpler. Websites are market tools, tools have to retain a competitive edge. You can't afford to ignore market trends. You can't afford to wait until everything is well-defined. You can't let craftsmanship get in the way of shipping.

You can buck the rules yourself and operate on whichever side of the tradeoff you want to operate in, but you can't expect everybody else to follow the same rules you do.

I mean, if you don't like the web, then by all means find a different domain. I personally love it, and find it absolutely fascinating. With the right tools, (Rails) the complexity is manageable.