Noooo. Not quite. I am saying if you book any cruise line through a decent cruise/travel agent you will be better off....both financially and mentally (less stress). I do not want to pick on MSC (we have cruised on 16 cruise lines) as, these days, just about every line has customer service issues. We, as amateurs, can choose to deal directly with cruise lines and their relatively low paid reservations clerks or we can choose to use a professional travel/cruise agent (who works for us) as an agent to represent us with the various cruise lines.
What makes this a "no brainer" for me is not only do I get a professional to deal with the cruise lines, but these agencies actually pay me! So, on an upcoming MSC cruise our cruise agency has given us $450 of OBC (this is actually not a particularly good deal) that we would not have received had we booked directly with MSC. On some of our other cruises with other lines we have received thousands of dollars of OBCs and other amenities simply because we used decent discount high volume cruise agencies
I will add that if you are booking a low priced MSC Experience than using an agency is not going to get you a lot (everything is based on percentages). On the other hand, if you book a World Cruise with a decent cruise line, having the right agent can save you $10,000+
My advice, for over a quarter century has always been the same. Shop around among decent, reputable cruise agencies for their best deals and then compare it to what it would cost you to book direct. It never hurts to shop around (other than the need to spend some time doing your homework/due diligence).
Hank