I don't know why, but the colors on that pompom make the whole thing unusually cute.
You haven't missed anything. I seem to always see each side saying the other is more difficult (it's crochet, crochet is more difficult), but they really just both require sufficient stubbornness. I've mainly stuck with toys/amigurumi, and I'm only just in the very baby stages of branching into anything wearable myself, so here's hoping for minimal frustration. Or at least for mistakes horrible enough to be funny.