I was previously using the SMF forum software (PHP-based and kind of retro) before discourse and I can understand where you’re coming from. Those forum softwares were a bit more logical and organized with it comes to admin stuff. However, I can happily report that after spending a little less than two days digging around in the Discourse admin section, I’m starting to get quite used to it. So I think it’s just very overwhelming in the very beginning, but the change in Discourse’s approach starts to pay off very quickly as it is incredibly customizable and truly future-proof. I wish you the best of luck!
Edit: spelling errors