> In order to be run on bare metal it's needing another bootloader which the documentation only barely mentions.

Maybe it's an in-group vs out-group thing: those in the group (i.e. have attempted this in the past) don't care about what the first stage bootloader is; you'll just use some existing bootloader (I used grub).

If you're in the out-group, you feel cheated that you still need a bootloader.