Streaming can be inexpensive and uncomplicated. Plug a pair of headphones into your phone and chose the streaming service which best fits your needs. (they all have free trials) Simple right? Purchase a headphone to RCA Y cable and hook it up to your stereo. Not really that more complicated.
The reason people spend so much on their streaming system is because everything matters. Honestly your phone to your stereo sounds pretty good but if you don't want to deal with the long cable strung across your room you'll need a device that you can control with your phone and so it begins. What makes it seem complicated is there are so many inexpensive options. Getting rid of the cable can be done for under $100 but while sounding good you won't be able to compete with audiophile components, if that's important to you.
Other users here have streaming setups that compete with expensive analog components. The draw of access to almost any recording ever produced as a high quality source actually makes their streaming system very inexpensive compared to the cost of the hard media they would have to own, store, maintain and catalog so they could find it.
I really wish there was a perfect streaming system but everything has some sort of compromise. I believe that streaming is worth the investment of not only dollars but the time and research required to determine what matters to me. I have a lot more time invested than dollars and drawers full of equipment I learned from to get me to my current imperfect system.