I spent a long time afraid of making switching regulators because I heard so much about how complicated they are, failure modes, EMI problems, etc. But when I got over that I never had any problems just reading and following the datasheet recommendations. The layout rules aren't even particularly complex and the datasheets will always give you an example layout to copy anyway.
Of course once I figured that out I found self-contained switching regulator modules like the RECOM R78-K and RPM series which are foolproof and cheap. Well the RPM modules were cheap at the time, but apparently they've doubled in price. Maybe that was an introductory thing or the supply chain got to them.
During a college internship, I actually debugged an EEPROM corruption issue on a PLC card all the way back to the power supply the original designer had copy-pasted out of the datasheet. The compensation network they had used was definitely not stable, even though it was exactly the same input and output voltages and circuit elements in their diagram and our application.
I've written my fair share of datasheets now, and while most of us are trying to do a good job and be clear and helpful, sometimes the stuff below the spec tables in the datasheet is, uh... less good than we'd like, for any number of reasons (inexperience, no time, someone left halfway through writing the datasheet, someone forgot to clean up copy-paste from the other datasheet with the slightly different thing, etc). I guess my point is: trust, but verify.
Of course once I figured that out I found self-contained switching regulator modules like the RECOM R78-K and RPM series which are foolproof and cheap. Well the RPM modules were cheap at the time, but apparently they've doubled in price. Maybe that was an introductory thing or the supply chain got to them.