I like this article in large, but sometimes it really is appropriate to blame the instructor/textbook if you feel confused.
Everyone wants to believe that the harder and more painful an experience is, the more you got out of it, but that's not the case.
Imagine if you took a math textbook and then removed every fifth sentence. It'd be way more confusing, way harder, and require much more struggle, and that struggle would be a waste of time.
Struggle matters, but you need to struggle on the right things.
You intuitively know a bad teacher from a good one.
When I learned programming both my teachers left me confused.
But I rapidly understood that the first was hard to understand because he was a sort of genius and you had to get to speed if you wanted to follow him, the other was just an incompetent lazy bastard that was there just for the pay (I remember asking him once a simple question on his domain specialty, he just resorted to Google and didn't even find the answer !).
You're absolutely right, but I think it's wrong to say that most people think a harder and more painful experience is better. The sad truth is that school is no longer set up to be challenging in any way, and that is in fact a bigger problem than the more subtle issue you point out.
Everyone wants to believe that the harder and more painful an experience is, the more you got out of it, but that's not the case.
Imagine if you took a math textbook and then removed every fifth sentence. It'd be way more confusing, way harder, and require much more struggle, and that struggle would be a waste of time.
Struggle matters, but you need to struggle on the right things.