Totally agree, I'm never quite sure how some people make growing chillies out to be such a complicated business especially if all you want is some bog standard ones for basic cooking. My process last year consisted of the following:
1. Buy chillies from super market and remove 4 seeds
2. Plant seeds in small pots just below surface water cover with cling film and place on sunny window ledge
3. Wait for seeds to germinate, remove cling film
4. Wait till plants reached approx 10cm then transplant to large pots
5. Water and feed until flowers appear
6. polinate flowers with old peg
7. water and feed until fruit ready for Harvest
8. Repeat 5. 6. 7. until it gets too cold for chillies to grow.