I feel like DNS is one of the more straightforward protocols, especially on a practical level, and especially given that most interfaces are a dropdown and two text boxes.
I have noticed a lot of developers shy away from it, probably because they don't use it much or it's not their job (rather than it being hard).
Sure, but I'm talking about a day-to-day practical level. Most people will only ever need to modify A/CNAME, occasional MX and TXT, and maybe an SOA/PTR.
Even the more arcane record types (as far as I've ever used them) are essentially key-value pairs with the record type analogous to a namespace.
Of the similarly-aged protocols, I think it's the most difficult (which is not saying much).
SMTP and HTTP can be pretty easily done by hand, which makes them more accessible to a person learning the protocols themselves.
DNS the protocol is simple, but I do think there's something to be said for how complex it is if you want to say, set up your own domain from which to reliably send e-mail.
Exactly. Why waste time learning something I will only use once or twice a year or 10 times in my career? Or that someone else (who is an expert) can fix for me?
I guarantee the problem space that dns solves is something you will run into in your career. Best to have some knowledge of systems like that so you can design them.
I have noticed a lot of developers shy away from it, probably because they don't use it much or it's not their job (rather than it being hard).