Why does hosting got to be so bad?

I'm no expert, I admit that. I know enough to be dangerous. But I also know enough to know when I'm being taken for a ride. So my current hosting provider, Gandi, gives me all sorts of grief about what really ought to be a very simple instance of WordPress. I decided to move to Linode. But it really does assume an awful lot of knowledge. After two mornings inching forward, following instructions to the letter, except when they don't work and then I have to improvise, I've reached the stage where I think I have a working server.

Then I try and upload WordPress and everything hangs. And I don't know what to do.

So I go back and discover these things called StackScripts that are supposed to make it easy. Except that they don't, because as far as I can tell there are no instructions -- like the ones I've been following -- that say "This is how to make use of a StackScript".

What I want, and will gladly pay for, is a host that doesn't treat me like an idiot (or an administrator) and that offers me a dedicated server to run my reasonably large, but not complex, WordPress site. It should protect me from the engine, not allow me to do silly things, and hum along smoothly.

Is that so much to ask?

My partner says it sounds like a business opportunity, and indeed it does. But it also sounds like a $100 bill lying on the pavement, which any fule economist kno cannot be there, because someone would already have picked it up.

Help me, please, either with a solid hosting recommendation (which should not be "Give up on WordPress") or a price to do the job.

P.s. 11 May 2017: I've been very happy with DreamHost. Must have moved there shortly after this.