And then come the 'black swan' events that completely blow away any excess returns that may have been generated.
That would apply to all traders of all products, not just options.
That is not completely true, as it depends on your risk management and position sizing.
Bull spreads are limited gain and loss strategies, so with correct capital allocation, even if a particular spread loses it should not be catastrophic to your overall account. If you plough all your capital into only one or two stocks using the synthetic bull spread (long stock + short higher strike call + long lower strike put), then yes black swan events can wipe you out.
Also trading the synthetic bull spread ties up to much capital, whereas if you trade the same spread with pure options (e.g. bull put spread = short higher strike put + long lower strike put) your margin requirements are much smaller.
Furthermore you can hedge your delta exposure so that your exposure to price movement is not excessive. The same goes for vega. For the short calls and puts discussed here, collecting premium is the main purpose so you are short vega. If you feel vega will increase in the future, this can be hedged with long vega positions such as long calendars etc.
This should confuse some people.
My point -
It is not a walk in the park.
Options have so many variables affecting its price, that the Spann workshops do not adequately cover, for people to understand the risk they are taking, especially now in this bear market.