I largely disagree on this point, and I think it is fairly important.

It is better to be able to manage hard forks effectively with thoughtful design, good communication, broad buy-in, and successful execution (many of which ultimately reinforce the others). If hard forks become a "torment" (or worse are viewed as something that can't be done at all) this is a symptom of a much more serious problem with the development process and community that points toward paralysis, stagnation, and, likely, death.

Not that there was anything wrong with launching a CryptoNote fork with a different blockchain design from the start though (separate question).

There is a likely point of extreme stability, maturity, and near maximum adoption where further hard forks become both impractical and unnecessary. But as long as coin is young and in active development you had better plan for hard forks or you can't adapt and will likely be left behind. No one can make every important decision in advance.

This is theoretical though, as Monero hasn't delivered any hard forks yet. So we will see. If we fail to pull them off I think we will be in trouble.