Simpler than apache doesn't mean simple. As someone who sets up HTTP servers rarely, I had trouble when I tried out NGINIX.

But I suspect for people who do it more seriously, then it's nginix config hits the sweet spot. To me the language seems sophisticated, well documented and fairly well behaved if you pay attention to the rules.

That's can make it too hard for someone casually trying to quick-start some experimental project. But it's exactly what you want if you are maintaining a long-lived set up that is likely to grow and become complicated over time.