-- sigh ---

That is absolutely false. If that were the case, no transaction would ever go anywhere.

While a very common and stubbornly persistent misconception, the truth is there is a robust programmable layer with 8 constants, 7 logic operators, 18 flow commands, 5 string commands, 7 bitwise operators, 27 math operators, 11 cryptography commands, 5 misc commands, and 7 reserved

And YES, You can do complex smart contracts and this has been true since 2011. Where do you think the term "smart contract" came from? It was coined in 2012 in London. Well technically it was coined in 1994 by Nick Szabo, but bitcoin popularized it.

It's just hard, and very low level, but hard does not equate to "no programmable layer".