Drupal 7 and Asp.NET webforms

I've been manhandled into writing some modules for Drupal lately. Weeping and gnashing of teeth abounds.
Php is not exactly my favorite language to begin with, and Drupal is extensive and complex and wholly alien to me.
One thing has struck me though, working through the Drupal hooks madness: just how much some of it resembles Asp.NET webforms. A recurrent criticism of Asp.NET has been its confusing event pipeline, and how WebControl abstractions give less control over the generated html.
But lo and behold: Drupal 7's "render array":

$form['taal'] = array(
    '#type' => 'radios',
    '#options' => array(
      'nl' => 'Nederlands (NL)',
      'en' => 'English (EN)',
    ),
    '#required' => FALSE,
    );

This generates a list of <input type"radio">. Change type to 'select', and it generates a <select>. It's also possible to pass simple html string into a render array, like a LiteralControl. The point is to be able to change properties about generated content from other modules, without having to do lots of string parsing.
And then I read in my "Building Drupal Modules" book about how you can hook into the rendering process to change things. Here's the list of available functions:

• template_preprocess()
• template_preprocess_[NAME OF HOOK]()
• [NAME OF MODULE]_preprocess()
• [NAME OF MODULE]_preprocess_ [NAME OF HOOK]()
• [NAME OF THEME]_preprocess()
• [NAME OF THEME]_preprocess_ [NAME OF HOOK]()
• template_process()
• template_process_ [NAME OF HOOK]()
• ... you know, forget it

Total of twelve, for one possible hook, and there will be lots of hooks - add six for each. This is also an event pipeline of sorts. It's just that event handlers can only be added by AutoEventWireup, and it's for everything, not just page events.

Mind you, I'm not criticizing Drupal. Whenever you aim to provide a flexible web platform, you will come up with solutions that have to be either complex, or not enough.

Still, pain.

Menno