Yeap PCI compliance is a HUGE annoyance. I was in charge of implementing PCI compliance with the company I work for. But honestly in the end it is worth it. I know my company spent atleast 200K not including what they are paying me. And it is not like when you are compliant you are complaint. It is always an ongoing effort. Some money saving tips: never store the PAN on your database. If you do it will require dual knowledge authentication. Meaning to reconstruct the key one person knows part of a the key another person knows the other part of the key etc. Granted we had to do PCI SAQ D because we are technically a service provider.
The language in the PCI-DSS is very vague and is ambiguous in some parts. If you have any questions with PCI I may be able to help.