There's a big difference between the complexity of setting up Bazel and the experience of using Bazel at a company where Bazel has been set up for you. As a user I love Bazel. When working with Java, I use the java_binary and java_library rules. When coding in Go, there's nothing new to learn regarding the build, just use go_binary and go_library instead. Everything is repeatable, builds and tests are cached, it's easy to query the build dependency tree, etc.

A few startups are offering "Bazel build/test as a service." It's one way to eliminate the work involved in setting up Bazel for an organization.