I think this claim of being 'way too complex' is a bit over the top.

Sure it was complex for the electronics and some other aspect in the Soviet Union, but not by that much.

N1 actually flew and it mostly failed when engine outs and vibration started to cause other issues with piping and so on.

I think those are solvable problems. With engine reliability going up, whole system reliability would go up to. The piping issues and electronics issues were fixable in time.

Russia was on the right track. They had the right kinds of engines they needed. An engine that could also be used on smaller vehicles to have a shared family. Engines that could be restarted and tested.

They arguably should have started with a smaller rocket with those engines and only gone to N1 when they were reliable.