Dosing pumps are keeeeewwwl.
Honestly, I don't find Zeo to be any more work really. It just changes the routine a little bit, sure, but it's not like I wasn't already doing something everyday with the tanks. If nothing else, I at least feed the fish everyday, so adding a few drops of this or that into that is not too bad. Pumping the reactor, well, I dunno, maybe I'm weird but I sort of look forward to doing that in the morning and evening..
It's not as good a system as Zeo, but you could alternatively consider Polyp-Laps Reef-Resh system. You can dose it on a weekly basis instead of daily, and there's no reactor. I was running this (still am actually on different tanks) prior to Zeo and it did show some remarkable effects on pulling down NO3.