Is GRUB the best bootloading solution? Is there an easier alternative?

I have had some rather bad experiences with GRUB2. I could say [*(and have said)*](https://unix.stackexchange.com/revisions/146784/1) some nasty things about its design and development process. I especially dislike its means of update: for whatever reason it must semi-automatically update several scripts - one indirectly via another in a chain - for every kernel update - or many other minor *(and seemingly unrelated)* configuration alterations. This is directly contrasted by previous experiences I had with LILO - to which I am seriously considering reverting - as I never had any problems with it, and its configuration was pretty simple. For one thing, as I remember it, I had only to update *(or, rather, it only ever updated)* a single, simply-managed configuration text-file per kernel-update. So how does LILO work on modern hardware with today's kernels? How does GRUB? How do other bootloaders? Do I have to fulfill any preconditions, or is it just about writing the configuration file and running lilo command as I fondly remember it in the old days? Does the kernel package update (Debian/Ubuntu) update LILO as it does with GRUB2?