I think this is honestly just a thing to get used to. I use the semi-colon/quote keys for [] and p/backslash for {}. It means I need to hit a modifier key to hit them, but you always had to hit a modifier key (aka shift) to hit curly brace anyway, so this really isn't a big deal.

With QMK, "layers" aren't this whole giant huge deal. It's like hitting the shift key, except just a different physical key, probably by your thumb.