Is the travel portal actually a ripoff, or are transfer partners just overhyped?

i just hit the sign up bonus on my sapphire preferred and im looking at flights to europe for next spring. everyone on here always says transfer to partners but when i actually look at the airline sites the point requirements seem pretty much the same as just booking through the chase portal or the dates i want are totally blocked out am i missing something obvious here. is it actually worth spending hours checking like a dozen different airline websites just to maybe save a few thousand points or is the portal fine for normal people who dont want this to be a second job feels like theres this assumption that transferring is always better but so far it just seems way more complicated for not much benefit. or maybe im just looking at the wrong programs idk