getting started with the esp8266 was mainly for ppl with some background in soldering. also, flashing the esp8266 was not too easy (python script, some system libs needed to be present iirc). for beginners, i found arduino, tessel or espruino to be easier. also, espruino now runs on esp8266 - the ecosystem that will evolve around the esp32 will be interesting to see
You could also buy an NodeMCU (http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html) if you don't like soldering. Personally without a formal electronics background or great soldering skills, I had not a lot of problems with setting up the ESP8266.
But I do agree that out of the box it's less "plug and play" as an Arduino.
The ESP-01 (which I started with) is quite painful to program, though - it uses a bizarre baud rate (78k?) and shares its GPIO with its programming pins.
I'm a software guy and had never picked up a soldering iron in my entire life. I managed to get my first esp8266 (the adafruit huzzah) soldiered to a little temp/humidity sensor on a small permanent breadboard (not sure the exact name) and had it pushing data into my home graphite server. Took me all of 2 days start to finish.
This is obsolete, get a WeMos D1 mini (suggested below) and run it with PlatformIO (my favorite) or the Arduino IDE. Arduino code will need minimal changes, if any, to run on the ESP.
