Why is OpenGL/ES so complex ?

Programming the GPU via OpenGL/ES API (or other equivalent APIs) is generally considered complex by most users familiar with native programming. A read of Imagination Technologies SDK for OpenGL ES (downloadable from the Imgtec website) tutorials, shows that, the number of lines in the first Tutorial to draw a simple triangle (yes - 3 vertices - "Hello Triangle"), is of the order of 5oo lines.

Does GPU programming need to be this complex ? Luckily enough at higher levels of abstraction - most frameworks hide the complexities of maintaining this giant state machine under the hood, and expose much simpler APIs.

Will publish simpler means of understanding and programming the GPU in a series of posts.