From the standpoint of a prepper who wants to "get it done" without a lot of fuss and paperwork, you're right: it's a PITA.
However, from the standpoint of an RF engineer (and the FCC), it's necessary. There just aren't enough "usable" blocks of the spectrum that can be assigned to folks like us who will only use them occasionally, because there are a zillion competing commercial users who want to use them all the time. Even if we ignore the police, fire, ambulance, civil defense, and military users, there are still thousands of companies screaming for more bandwidth to use for the new information age: cellular data, direct-to-home broadcast services, satellite services, satellite-based-internet, portable broadcast pickup, etc., etc.
Long story short: the FCC doesn't assign these ever-so-precious airwaves anymore - it auctions them off to the highest bidder! That means that users like us, who don't have any money to spend at auctions or for lobbyists, have to take the leavings that either can't be auctioned (many frequency bands are allocated by international treaty, including the the ones for the Maritime Service and ham radio), or are set aside for users that don't want to share: the government, the military, and defense contractors all get their assignments from special allocations managed by DoD, not the FCC.
The only way to provide any level of service to casual users is to do what the FCC has already done: keep power levels so low that MURS, FRS, GMRS, and other "local" users get about the same range that kids used to get from the walkie-talkies they got for their birthday.
Amateur Radio is much less of a PITA to get into than it used to be: there is no need to learn Morse Code, for one thing, and the tests have been simplified to the point where anyone with a weekend to spare or the chance to attend an "Exam Cram" session can get a Technician license and enjoy the (much) wider selection of channels and the help of other hams to get things going.
There is an oft-forgotten fly in the Amateur Ointment, however: a strict prohibition against "pecuniary interest", which means that anything involving money has to be strictly about ham radio: Amateurs, for example, can join "swap" nets to offer ham equipment for sale, but that's all.
Long story short: getting a ham license is the easiest, most expedient, and least-cost way to setup your family or community network so that it works both now and after a disaster. And, sorry to bring bad news, but you're much more likely to need $1,000 than $100.
YMMV. HTH. HAND.
William Warren