It's all subjective I think. For people who are used to beautiful hardwoods and 30 ton log splitters, elm may be a pain, but I split around 10 cord by hand, every year and have done so for many years. It's a mostly locust and elm, with some different species scattered in there and I do just fine. Sure, there's some pieces I chainsaw into chunks, because they don't split, but that happens with every species I've ever split. Knots and Y's just don't split good.
I guess my point is, what's hard and a PITA for some, is not so for others. We all have different thresholds as far as what we will tolerate and what we won't. Where I am, we aren't surrounded by millions of acres of hardwoods, so I take what I can get. Also, a lot of the wood I get is from helping out older folks who are on fixed incomes and can't afford tree companies, so I help them out.
Heck, last year I heated my house all winter on cottonwood and I was never cold. Not even the 10 days of single digit highs and negative overnight temps, cottonwood kept the place nice and toasty. I used it because an old lady wanted it cut down and it's what I had ready to burn and most wouldn't even start their vehicle to pick up cottonwood, let alone process it.
Here's some pieces I split off of the stuff with bark. It split better than I was expecting, but it was the trunk with no knots.
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