This is true, since the base protocol is dead simple without many frills since its goals is real-time communications, not a chat-specific protocol for humans (TLS is good enough for certain applications of the protocol). That said, most modern clients support PGP & OMEMO with many having the encryption on by default and required is usually an option as well. There were some talks about simplifying the OMEMO setup in the future, but it’s good enough for now. See Are we OMEMO yet? for client suggestions.