I've travelled all around the world. LAX sucks. Don't be so presumptous about people on this board. You sound like you work in PR for LAX.
In fact, many large international airports suck. Air travel can be a MASSIVE hassle for all sorts of reasons. So if I say LAX sucks, it doesn't mean other airports don't suck. Many of them do. But, yeah, LAX definitely sucks.
LAX doesn't suck. It's a massive airport complex -- in the pre-COVID era, it was the world's largest airport for originating and terminating traffic (that is, excluding connections) by a healthy margin. Not sure where things stand today but if it's not at the top it will be near it. Things have gotten a lot better in the past decade and will only get better given the active projects. I picked family up on Wednesday night during the heart of the evening and dropped them off midday Sunday and it took roughly 45 and 50 minutes from the time I got off the freeway until I got back on.
Saying LAX sucks because it's a big airport is absurd. Most days, LGB has less than 75 scheduled commercial departures. LAX has more than half that just to LAS. What makes LGB so convenient is its inconvenience (lack of flights). Yes, LGB and SNA are super convenient.... except when things go wrong. Earlier this year I dropped my parents off at LGB for their flight to PHX and then went to work. Two hours later they called me -- their flight to PHX was delayed and they would miss their connecting flight and have to spend 24 hours at PHX at their own expense. I ended up leaving work, picking them up and taking them to... LAX.
There's absolutely no reason to have any anxiety about flying into LAX. I fly frequently and most of my flights are from LAX. And I'm 15 minutes from SNA and have to drive past it and LGB to get to LAX.