I hear that the software that was developed for SDRPlay has a complex learning curve and is not very intuitive. Does anyone know if SDRSharp is compatible with SDRPlay?
I don't think it's complex. Spend 5 mins with it and you may well like it. However, you can still use older SDR# versions. I frequently use SDR# 1333 (in fact daily) for some of my activities. But you are limited to 2 MHz of bandwidth. For me it's not an issue.
EDIT: You can find earlier SDR# versions here if you need them, but they won't work with SDRPlay beyond the 13** series: http://iz3mez.it/software/SDRSharp/