Jesus, it sounds like it.  There really needs to be a service like Circle again, which was probably the easiest way I've ever used for both buying and selling bitcoin.  Unfortunately I don't even know if such a service can exist in the US again.  I'm not sure if regulations have changed, but there must be some reason why they stopped doing what they did.

From what it sounds like, Coinbase is still the best way to go for simple bitcoin transactions, even with the fee structure they have.  I'm not sure if Kraken is the best way to go, and I think Gemini has higher fees.  It really sucks when you're trying to deal with legitimate businesses and trying to use fiat and bitcoin together.  Don't know why they make it so goddamn hard.