Hi soul33,
Unfortunately you will run into HTML very often when using WordPress, and as I can see you discovered, many plugins make use of shortcodes. If this is something that you want to avoid, I suggest you purchase a premium theme with a more advanced visual editor or use something like Visual Composer. If you really do not want to mess with HTML, Visual Composer might be the way to go. But it is obviously not free.
Making plugins takes time and effort, and all of the ones on www.ads-software.com are provided for free. You will not always find the polish of a premium plugin here.
Best of luck,
Nick