The official Monero Desktop GUI requires downloading and syncing the entire blockchain, which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive
Discussion
Yes. You need to download the Blockchain and sync with it
nodes send and receive transactions and add blocks to the chain.
wallets connect to nodes to sync their balance.
wallets dont download the blockchain.
monero wallets require the user to download all blocks since the wallet creation date and scan them for the user's transactions. the user doesn't have to scan everything back from 2014 or store blocks that have already been scanned.
there's definitely an unresolved UX issue here and it's one of my biggest complaints with monero, but it's not as bad as you suggested. there is some work being done on making light clients safer but it's not finished yet.