The WordPress config for AmazonSES is easy, it's the hurdles one must jump through on the AWS side that are cumbersome and time consuming (setup AWS account, setup ec2 instance, setup access control rules, etc).

Mandrill was awesome because from account setup to the first email took less than five minutes.

Worth mentioning for low volumes simple SMTP email via Google or any other relay is still a good option. On that front the plugin PostMan is really awesome and has dethroned all the other SMTP plugins IMHO.