The tutorials aren't just 'set up this here', they also contain a lot of explanation about why this is done. ORK is a tool, and the tutorial setup is just one of many possible variations to use it.
So, yeah, it rambles a bit in that regard :)
The initial UI setup is a bit tedious due to involving a lot of things:
- changing UI system in editor
- TMP setup
- UI environment scene for prefab editing
- UI box and input prefab setup
Setting up the prefabs can be skipped if you download and the provided UI assets, though I'd recommend to learn how to do this at some point.