Well, let’s not get carried away. There is almost no training in the entire game(unless you happen to find some special sites, and even then, you must decide what to do and if its worth it). For the most part you don’t need to equip dozens of researchers, and if you do happen to equip your researchers at all, it’s typically once per game. Researchers can be set to auto-research so you don’t even need to worry about that, and so the game gets closer to what you’re suggesting - which is you invest time and effort in the handful of thugs that you have.
I’m not saying there isn’t micro-management, but lets not invent faults for the game out of whole cloth now ;)