Yes, thinking for yourself is a burden (of-sorts).
Because you have to own and live with the outcomes of your decisions.
This "burden" is one I'm willing to bear. In the ORG you can see learned dysfunction from being spoon-fed conclusions to every one of life's complicated questions.
The inability (unwillingness?) to adjust to new information carries over into other areas of life. Suffering results.
"If something can’t go on forever, it won’t"
As the ORG struggles forward, JWs will have to get nuttier to stay in it. They are up against entropy (undefeated in the history of the universe).
I do share some of your sentimentality concerning our very black/white, cut and dried paradigms of childhood, but I think as time goes on, it will be harder and harder to be a JW.
Their lives may be simpler, but more miserable.