If you like python you might check out jello[0]. I basically wrote it to give you the power and simplicity of python without the boiler plate in a jq-like form-factor. Jello also allows you to use dot-notation instead of dict bracket notation, so it does make things easier on the command line.
Also, there is jellex[1], which is a TUI wrapper around jello that can help you build your queries.
Stepping just a little beyond regular ‘loop and filter’ is already difficult without consulting the manual each time — being exacerbated by the impossibility of finding those things in the manual without skimming through most of it. Making an ‘if’ for variations in the input structure is easily a twenty-minute job. Outside of the basic features, Jq's syntax is increasingly arcane and unintuitive—maybe those working with it daily do remember the ‘advanced’ stuff, but I don't.
I actually collected a sizable list of alternatives to Jq:
However, personally I think that next time I might instead fire up Hy, and use the regular syntax with the functional approach for any convoluted processing I come up with. Last time I mentioned this, another HNer made a Jq-like tool with Lisp-like syntax: https://github.com/cube2222/jql (from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21981158).
Now, to find a query tool with a saner language than Jq...