Why are blocks so difficult?

If I want something to appear in a sidebar, it needs to be a "block". For free-form content, that requires creating a new block and entering data. In order for a non-tech admin to edit that block, I need to teach them the arcane way to navigate to "configure" that block (or tell them to save some link to it.) If I want that data to also appear within a node - well no way.

Why can't I:

1) Create a node, say "Special Stuff", with special content and lines.
2) Expose that node as a block
3) Include that node in All Stuff, another node (perhaps a Page) where I write lots of stuff and say here is the Special Stuff,

and then:
1) tell some guy with permission that he can edit that and have it change in both places.
2) have an "edit" link next to anywhere that node is included (i.e. both the block and the All Stuff node) so I don't have to either teach him the drupal navigation system or give him a direct link.

This seems like really, really simple CMS stuff, but really hard to do with Drupal. It also seems really easy to add if it's not already implementing. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just can't believe there isn't a way to do this without writing custom templates.

I don't entirely understand why there is a concept of "blocks," but it makes some sense in a layout perspective. Having the default new block be free form HTML instead of just a node reference makes NO sense though. Content should be in NODES, not blocks. As of now, I can't find a way (without creating custom templates) of:

a) including a node in a block
b) including a node in another node

Please tell me if I've completely missed something here.