Hrm, not sure I entirely agree with you there, and I'm both stupid and living as a foreigner in Poland :) The writing system is fantastic in that regard, you can look at a word and have a very good idea of how it should sound.
For me, there's only one really difficult sound and that's ń: the best description I've heard of it is the first N in onion. But it's still a bugger to pronounce and hear the difference between, say, koń (horse) and koni (horses).
I don't think I've ever met any American who can pronounce ы - though it's fun watching them try.
My Russian tutor says that my accent (which is mimicry based on Russian from songs, films, etc.) sounds almost native EXCEPT for how I pronounce ы. I can't quite get it down correctly. :(
Compare that to french, chinese or english...