Yes, it is. But it's not that bad for just new people coming around wanting to share their cat with the world and then slowly building up a fanbase. The part where it gets discouraging [not using the term "scary" because that's kind of a different thing to me] is if you start expecting stuff to happen. You expect your videos to have views grow exponentially as you run into the wall of not getting over 10 Views per video. You expect to get to 100 Subscribers by the end of the month but stay at 10. Your viewer retention is at the bottom of the chart and on your other tab you have just that success story open. The 10 Million Subscriber YouTuber that got you into doing this. All you wanted was to be like him. There it comes, the demotivation. Everyone's had it once. Your expected result isn't there.
Now who's to blame? Most people turn to YouTube. YouTube is at fault for preferring this large YouTuber instead of me even though I've done YouTube for this long, done tags, etc. YouTube never shows me in search. YouTube this, YouTube that. Most people don't get to the important conclusion that it's them all along.
YouTube isn't software development, where you go into something with an expected result and can build things off a list until you're there. If your expected result is to reach XY Thousand/Million subscribers in YZ time and don't get it you will be upset. That's how humans work.
What you should do is take YouTube as a hobby. Don't concentrate on getting a number up. Concentrate on creating content you're proud of and having fun while doing it. Then the numbers will come. We've all been there. We've had a channel at 10 Subscribers with videos getting 10 views after a will and then getting stuck. Getting demotivated there is normal. Don't let that get you down, concentrate on your own channel without wanting to be like someone else and you'll have a better time.