Cell is so complex that they had to create a course on programming the thing because nobody could figure it out.
Rubbish. There are plenty of courses on programming the Intel x86 chips as well. Not because no-one can figure it out, but because it's the most convenient way to learn about low-level programming. One of my clients just got an IBM blade server that is powered by Cell processors, and while I realize it's not quite the same as the PS3, all we had to do to get the old programs up and running, was run them through IBMs C compiler. That's the wonder of using high-level languages, the underlying architecture is abstracted away. I imagine that things have improved with PS3, but I will be very surprised if they have caught up with microsoft where their tools and libraries are concerned.
Sure, I've also heard that Sonys SDKs are traditionally much worse than their competitors. That's not the fault of the hardware tho'. It's just because Sony suck at developing simple, compact and consistent APIs, and/or adapting someone else's.