I've had water softeners in three homes for the past 30 plus years. I would only call it "maintenance" if you're a lazy son-of-a-[censored]. Seriously, how hard is it to carry in an average of a bag of salt per month ?!?! Every few years I do a "cleaning" which involves pouring a quart of some [censored] in the brine tank and cycling the unit.

I don't have any other gizmos in the lines but my wife likes RO water so we have a separate small RO unit.

I do run outdoor water off a line before the softener - no point in watering lawns with soft water !!

And FWIW, we have a kettle and a Keurig that we've been using for over ten years and both look like the day the were made - no mineral buildup whatsoever in either one.