I think saying it wouldn't have been difficult may have been poor word choice on my part, but at the very least, Fox could have attempted to move in the right direction rather than the wrong direction.
Maybe it's because of my familiarity with the characters and recognition of what a good FF film needs, but I do see it as an easier task than Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man. How do you make audiences take a talking raccoon seriously? How do you make audiences take a man that talks to ants seriously? How do you make those minor characters into broadly accepted films?
So I do tip my hat to Marvel for what they did with those specific properties, but I don't think FF is some mysterious property that is difficult to figure out.
Don't make it an origin story.
Don't repeat the mistakes of the Tim Story films.
Do give it a reasonable budget.
Do make it visually spectacular with cool creatures, gadgets, sets and locations.
Do give it a proven director who likes and understands the comic books.
Do make it visually similar to the comic books with blue uniforms with '4's on them.
Do find a cast that fits the characters as they've been portrayed for 50 years.
Do one of the most iconic villains in comic-book history right.
So reaching the upper echelon, might not be easy, but I believe following the guidelines I've just typed out with 30 seconds of thought would have made for a much better, much more accepted film that would have had a chance to be embraced by fans.