Take heart: once you get over the initial how-the-hell-can-my-fingers-even-do-that hump, learning enough guitar that it's pleasant to listen to is quick. You can hit that mark with casual practice inside 3 months, easily. By contrast, I spent years playing Alto Sax and got way (way) better at it than I ever was at guitar, but that was never pleasant to listen to solo—most instruments you've got to be really really good at them before they're tolerable solo, but guitar's about as far the other direction as you can get.
The "consistent policy" of barre chords made a lot of sense to me, and still does.
It was mostly due to the rhythm technique of most of the guitarists I like (John Frusciante, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Jimi Hendrix, etc) being very embellished. Much easier to do when the shapes are always the same.
What I find harder for beginning guitarists than fretting, is moving from one chord to another. Once you can finger a couple of musically related chords (pairs I recommend learning - G and C, G and D, D and A, A and E), learn to move back and forth between the chords without stopping. Don't "correct" yourself. Keep your strumming rhythm going, uninterrupted, even if you miss a chord!
It is better to play the wrong note at the right time, than play the right note at the wrong time. Always.
The true sound of a beginning guitarist is the sound of a song stopping for two seconds while they fumble to the "right" chord, because they played something wrong. Don't do that. I recommend playing along to records, because records won't stop just because you did. They'll teach you to keep going.
Also the perspective that helps me learn an instrument is that it's like you are developing a friendship with your instrument. One day you will be so comfortable that playing an instrument would feel like talking to a friend but making a friend takes time :) You have to have some awkward conversations first, feel like this is going nowhere and someday it won't feel awkward anymore and you would pick up your instrument and it would understand you like a friend does :)
I used to play a guitar and now often spend my time playing the mandolin so this perspective has definitely helped me, maybe it would be of some help to you too :)
15 minutes a day is a good goal when you start. When you first start that is all the longer you can stand listening to a bad rendition of trivial tunes. When you get better you can stand listening to yourself play longer and longer, and your practice time can increase. Don't push too fast.
Place your thumb on the back of the neck in the middle, and have your fingers curl round to press down on the strings using just the tips of your fingers.
See how that hurts more? Well, once your fingers have developed callouses, and then healed over, you're well on your way to guitaring superstardom :)
This hurts alot more with acoustic guitars than it does with electric, but it can help a lot when you first start out to buy a lighter guage string.
The main secret is: Press just behind the fret. This will give the cleanest sound with the less amount of pressure.
Also, you need good ergonomics. Your wrist should never feel ackward; it should be as straight and relaxed as possible. This often needs wearing the guitar with a strap, and with the guitar hanging high (as most bass players do), rather than low as in most music videos (because it looks so cool to have the guitar hanging low...)
Being relaxed and having a light touch is key to playing effortlessly. Beginners tend to press down way too hard. But don't worry too much about that for now, it'll develop automatically. If you're having trouble angling the fingers right, try moving your thumb around instead.
I've spent ~2 months trying to learn guitar a few years ago, and I'm 2-3 months into my second attempt.
This is going to be incredibly unhelpful... But the answer is more practice. Practice playing chords, practice switching between two chords slowly, quickly, etc.
After ~5-10 hours of practice over a few weeks, beginner chord shapes will magically get much easier.
Your fingers will also toughen up and callus, which will make it easier to press strings down without interfering with other ones. The second time I picked up guitar, I made a goal of getting calluses as quickly and painfully as possible. Playing without them is an exercise akin to pulling teeth.