but I flinch at the multi-step authorization to get in the air.
I have never had any issues, but equally I have never tried to fly in restricted areas. When I talked about ease of getting in the air, then I was referring to how fussy my drone (original Mavic Air) is about connecting to the app. No connection, no flight. I did find a pretty much 100% repeatable process, but still fussy. Whereas with no manual, I plugged my phone in, it offered to go and download the app, took me through some initial steps, including updating firmware, and we were off.