I don't find them a pain in the butt at all. I have one for carbon and one for GFO because I only run the carbon one for 24 hours once per week.
If something is a pain in the butt I tend not to do it often enough, so I make sure I have things set up so that it is easy (like water changes!). I have a little cap that I put on the stand pipe when I fill it. The cap is from a wine set that you pump the air out of the wine bottle, so the cap is hollow. It fits perfect!
I also pre-rinse GFO with RO/DI using a fine mesh sieve, and carbon is always rinsed with the sieve, then boiled, then soaked for 24 hours before using. This way when I hook them back up I only have to catch half a kool-aid jug of dirty water before letting them flow back into my sump.
FYI Doug, the carbon should be on the bottom with the GFO on the top. That way the GFO holds the carbon down so it doesn't tumble, and cleans the water before the more expensive GFO gets to it. Oh, and I have noticed a big difference using a reactor compared to passive.