Sure. You can try to sneak something in that isn't obvious. But you can also try to evade behavioural analysis. Not load load your malicious code if you detect you're running inside a virtual machine. Stop sending packets if some sniffer software is installed, only send data every 2 months, etc... It's an arms race, either way.

Regarding 'a difference in effort': Idk. It's a pretty big difference. You could also call taking a plane to fly to hawaii for two weeks or swimming there - a difference in effort. And while there might be one or two outliers with obscure code, the majority will be kind of readable. But i agree. You have to be intelligent, pay close attention if somebody tries to sneak something in in plain sight, know how you could be tricked and use multiple tools and approaches simultaneously, to be effective.