@serietah You're completely right. It's really not all that complex to learn a cross, however it's definitely not easy. I explained this, then guided my cousin through the steps, left him to it, and he arrived at the conclusion I expected him to:
It's not worth it to even do higher difficulty ring strength skills, planches are an exception, but crosses, malteses, azarians, okay there really aren't that many and I'm not listing them all; point is I don't think they're worth the toll they take on the person doing them.
And for what? Beyond competition, it's just not worth it to learn them. At least for me, I don't see any rewards or reasons to get back to harder ring skills. Also I miss having a rings tower and the rings I have now can't compare and make me sad...