I share the exact same aversion as you (in-fact I'm often criticised for being too far in that direction), but I find Webpack to be a very peculiar target for reducing complexity.
At it's core it's a very simple tool that does exactly one thing (combines multiple JS files into one, using the standard ES6 import/export syntax). Any additional complexity is the user's fault.
browserify did it almost instantly with a much smaller bundle file. all without having to write a script.
It's probable that with enough time spent learning... a build tool... that webpack could perform well. But I want to solve a problem, not learn about webpack.
At it's core it's a very simple tool that does exactly one thing (combines multiple JS files into one, using the standard ES6 import/export syntax). Any additional complexity is the user's fault.