Exactly, simplicity is a subjective term; some think of it as in Clean Code where codebases end up as oneliner functions or overly formal lasagna code with many clean-feeling layers, but they can't see the resulting complexity in the overarching architeture.
Except you spend extra time making your code simple, rather than slapping together something that requires extra maintenance from the eventual owners.
Ideally we need metrics saying, "my projects require 30% less support or 50% less brainpower than comparable projects". Things like "average cyclomatic complexity", etc.
Simplicity is like any form of automation in that there is always an expensive upfront cost. The automation pays for itself by reducing time per interval, so its only a matter of when break even occurs as derived by the savings per interval multiplied by intervals in a given frequency.