1. Paid “web hosting” gives you more control, more possibilities, more problems. You can choose what to install. You can choose just those plug-ins that YOU need. Generally this is much more fun than going with a “blogging service”. If your needs are basic, and you couldn’t care less about “tweaking”, but you just want to write, then a ready set up service (like wordpress.com) is good for you. You need to keep two things in mind, though. First, you might want to use your own domain name. Second, you need to check that the plugins and themes you need, are available.
2. Yes. No, WordPress is not complicated. Only when you start playing with plug-ins, some of which have bugs or strange features, problems can emerge. Those problems are then solved here ?? Also, if you want to do strange things like adding executable code inside your posts, then you may find some challenges (usually solvable). WordPress is good as-is for basic publishing. If the default features are sufficient for your needs, then you will probably never have any issues. The need to install your first plugin becomes a fact about one second after you try to create a table formatted two column list, though. But it is fun.
