Ultimately, Apple is responsible here but I don't think this is an intractable issue baked into the software. And yeah, maintenance is required despite what the perception might be. Apple even offers great support services for people who are not able to do it themselves.
Does it even matter if it is a corrupt setting or not? Why would it matter? As far as I am concerned, I am seeing every iOS user around me suffering from this. The root cause does not matter here.