(for clarity, i did read your entire post, im jus quoting this to keep on point)
i feel like most of the time, this is a misunderstanding of what ppl here are saying. nobody (worth listening to) is saying writing is easy, but its certainly less labour intensive. like you said, comic artists are cross-trained, we have to juggle many skills - not just 'how to write' and 'how to draw', but its a juggle of visual and verbal knowledge, in a fusion of comic-specific knowledge. like i need to make sure its well understood that comics are a beautifully complex, bloody difficult artform with which to - as you say - dance beautifully.
as a writer and cartoonist, there are two times things are 'hard' and my brain really gets whirring (aka the Fun Times) - the writing itself, as youve detailed, requires a lot of brainwork in making sure things are well-paced, clear, interesting, with a good rhythm. writing is a lot of work, its difficult and intimidating a lot of the time. but then... the writings done.
then i have to kick back into overdrive to turn it into a comic. i need to read twice as many books - books on writing, and then books on comics - to make not only functional but interesting and artful compositions and sequences, i go through several drafts like i do with my writing. theres a great deal of visual subtext i like to think about as well, because thats a tonne of fun, and makes things Better. each page thumbnail takes maybe an hour (i have executive dysfunction, things are slow). honestly, as someone whos done both, id say thats slightly harder for me - but regardless, its still another task to put on top of the writing.
and then, yknow, draw, colour, letter, all that togetherll take me about three hours a page, so 90 hours per chapter. i can write an entire chapter in one sitting, even if i come back and rewrite and rewrite again, its still pretty fast. writing is easier in the sense that its less labour intensive, and more accessible - get some paper, get a keyboard, get like anything, backspace, copy/paste, move shit around. its so easy, in that respect. once ive sketched out my pages, if im feeling lazy, thats it. ive dug my heels into that decision.
so tl;dr people are saying 'easy' to mean 'less labour intensive.'
also, i think theres a pushback bc the literature world so often devalues comics. tit for tat innit
hanyway, apologies for tangent
im british, so a lot of the people i meet wont go '...oh' to my face when i tell them i make comics. were not a polite bunch, just passive aggressive. most of the people i tell are very much literature people, bc most of the people i meet are poets at poetry events, and tend to interpret it as 'i make childrens books.' more often, they just brush over it, we go back to talking poetry.
on the flipside, art teachers hear 'i make comics' and think im an animator. typically though, all it takes is flashing a good page at them and theyre pretty impressed.
as a Major Comic Geek, i usually feel at least low key alienated by my interactions w non-comic ppl wrt my comic. people are generally positive, impressed by the skill, but i rarely meet people as excited about comics as me. i get kinda paranoid that people are judging me, expecting me to be doing high art or prose with the skills i have, but i cant say ive actually had many people say that to my face.