The most annoying thing about canti brakes is not the tediousness of setting up them up properly or how they protrude outside of the frame.
It's that after all that work, if your work was too good, they can shudder, because of their ridiculous mounting method. If the brake pads grip well enough to bend the fork, then the brakes will grab even harder, then the brakes will slip and the fork will be sprung back until the pads grip again and the whole cycle will repeat itself until you let go of the brakes. Even a crown mounted cable stop is no guarantee to stop this, so it's a flawed design from the start.
I have a Surly Cross check with Shimano's BR-R550 cantis. Due to the straddle cable design and the fact they use V-brake type cartridge pads, set up, adjustment and pad alignment isn't very difficult or tedious. Certainly far better and easier than the LX cantis I had on a '92 Trek MTB.
Their stopping power with the OEM pads was decent and somewhat better with Kool Stop Salmon replacements but not as low effort as any of my other road bikes with dp side pulls.
They do have a tendency to squeal that comes and goes. Toeing in the pads reduces it for a time but it eventually returns and that alone has had me contemplating V-brakes and the required lever change.