It's time for a poll: how many people routinely use Henchmen & Hirelings to bulk out the party in their D&D games? And how many of those think the rules for them are too complex?
@SubplotKudzu Poll doesn't have an option for "use them, don't use the rules"! Our regular D&D parties often have party hangers-on (starjammers had a subcrew of halflings, now I think it's just an elven princess turned fighter; neitherworld has several allies one of whom is the party's level; 12 kingdoms had an entire adventuring party recruited when the group was light), but just uses roleplay for recruiting them, not for the most part rules.
@mneme who handles them in a fight? What actual mechanical oomph do they provide if you don’t use rules for them?
@mneme and if you’re not using the rules as written that would almost definitionally mean the rules as writ are too complex, right? I mean if they weren’t you would use them?
@SubplotKudzu I mean, maybe. Or maybe the group has never looked at the official rules for henchlings and hirepersons, and figured that particularly in a milestone-based game, just having someone run them as a PC (in combat) was obvious and intuitive, needing no other rules. You could argue "too complicated" in that -any- extra rules were superfluous, but it's also likely that the official rules are less complicated but more different than the group finds worthwhile.
@mneme so mean the rules as they stand are being pre-supposed as too much more detail to bother with, which makes them by the standards of the “think the rules for them are too complex” question… too complex?
I’m not sure why you’re splitting hairs here. “We didn’t even think we needed rules”means the group decided any added written rules are too complex. It’s not like there’s a platonic level of complexity they have to pass for their opinion to be valid. 
@SubplotKudzu I mean, fair enough. I do feel like "we didn't read them" is different from "we read them and didn't like them," but the important thing is what you meant when you wrote the survey.
@SubplotKudzu The other thing that wasn't clear was what you meant by "the rules" (the official rules vs the rules the group is using for h&h). But again, that seems clear from interlocution.
@mneme I’m also deliberately not asking which edition of D&D/Retro Clone/Branch game they are playing because I’m just looking for a general vibe for DnD – style play
@SubplotKudzu Often the GM handles them in a fight, treating them as a PC of (the PCs level/significantly below the PCs level, depending on how they're stated). In some situations the relationship is close enough that the GM has delegated them to a specific player who plays both them and their PC in a fight, for the obvious advantages of "less stuff for the GM to have to do."
That tends to be when we "need" the NPC for some reason.
@SubplotKudzu I may get hirelings only when absolutely necessary. I definitely want no henchmen eating my XP thankyouverymuch.