Is RX (aka Special Situations aka Hybrid Value aka Opportunistic Investments) Complex?

Is the work actually that complex?

I thought RX and distressed would be much harder, but reading through some cases it often seems like do the valuation, understand the capital structure, then play around with it (inject new debt or equity, exchange one instrument for another, amend maturities, move value around the stack, etc.).

I’m struggling to see why this is supposedly so much more intellectually complex than PE.

In PE you still have the valuation and capital structure piece, but then a huge part of the intellectual work shifts toward the industry, competitive dynamics, market structure, growth, unit economics, operational upside, etc. Those have their own intricacies. The fact that plenty of people approach that superficially is another topic (there’s literally an entire Columbia investing curriculum built around understanding growth and competitive advantage).

So going back to RX/SS/HV/Opportunistic what am I missing?

Where exactly does the real complexity in RX and special sits show up that I’m not seeing from the cases? 

Or is RX just a bunch of nerds discovering what a yank-a-bank is and convincing themselves they’ve unlocked nuclear physics?

Would be genuinely interested to hear from anyone working in RX, distressed or hybrid value on where the complexity actually arises in practice. 

What does a normal day or week look like, specifically from a work perspective? What are the parts that actually require the most judgment, technical depth, modelling, structuring or iteration?