I don't share your critic, at least not all of it, esp. the non-intended misoperation. You have to know what you are doing and the Zoom devices belong to the more user-friendly devices.

There are some really good iphone-mics. The Shure MV-88 is quite good. And you can invest all of your money into the mic instead of paying for the recorder.
I'm quite happy with the Zoom H6.

I own the Shure and a Lewitt DGT650. The Lewitt is very very good, but not so easy to setup and I guess you would have at least the same problems with all the settings as you have with the H5.