I, too , find hanging my food to be a hassle. And having to pick a campsite based on the availability of good "hanging trees" is also a pain.
I got pretty good at the whole hanging process on a JMT trip years ago, but it never ceased to be a chore. And so, I have gradually come aorund to the point where I bring my bear canister on all summer trips (as opposed to backcountry ski trips, where I don't worry about my food at all), regardless of whether required or not. For me, the extra weight of the canister is worth it. I don't have to pick a campsite with a haging tree avaialble, I don't have to worry about ANY critters getting into my food, I don't have to go through the whole hanging process, and I have a nice comfotable campstool to boot. And if I want to take a little side trip I don't have to hang my food while I'm away from my pack, just take the canister out so no critters chew my pack trying to get to the food.
And yes, I will agree that a some of the bear worries are overstated. There are certainly areas where the bears have become enamoured of human food, and highly skilled at getting it. In those areas, an approved canister is the only way you are going to keep your food short of defending it every minute. But ther are lots of other areas wher the bears an neither so bold or so skilled, and will avoid you as much as possible and be very unlikely to go after your food.. If you camp and travel off the trails, this is mostly the case. But even there, I find I can't justify to myself the risk of "contaminating" a wild bear as well as the slight risk of losing my food. I can well recall the "old days" (like the 70's, say) when we didin't worry about our food, except to keep it as close to us as possible in order to deter mice and squirrels in the night. That changed because the bears are smart and they like oru food and they found they could get it. The only way to get back to the point where bears are not a nuisance is to make sure that no bear EVER gets any human food. If we could keep that up for several generations of bears, they might cease to associate people with food, and leave our campsites alone. Of course, we'll never be able to go back to the carefree days, because if we did, the cycle would start again. But we'd have less hassle from bears, and they would be better off as well. So it is critical to store your food properly, for the bears' sake. It's not about you, it's about the bear.