What did you actually end up doing that was different. Not questioning your statement, "Ventura has made it very convoluted compared to previous os......" Ventura (macOS 13)
is quite different in a number of ways to macOS Monterey, lots of new security measures and features like Stage Manager, passwordless logins with Safari and lots of updates to Messages and Mail not to mention System Preferences changing to System Settings with a completely new interface but that was a few years ago now.
Many of our users including myself are now on macOS Sonoma (macOS 14.3.1). You will be releived to hear nothing that dramatic has changed since then. Although some tweaks have been made Sonoma is more like a refined version of Ventura.
My guess is that you may need to change your security settings and or ensure you always download third party apps from the developer's web site.
See System Settings > Security
Notice that there are now only two options. Personally I haven't had any trouble with this and apps download and progress to the stage of dragging to the Application Folder as before.