Realistically, the hotel industry is a "gut" for front desk (and other) staff - that is to say more than a few merely pass in and pass out in short order. This means there's a reasonably high chance of getting someone who is untrained, unskilled or uncaring. The management is between a rock and a hard place: provide a lot of direction and training, you are likely preparing an employee for a competitor who offers a few cents more hourly, and you are back where you started. Very much a Sisyphean task, IMO.

Front loading a bit of "being a good customer" can be a lot of help in helping create a comfortable stay - being calm, patient, nice, explaining, clarifying, being prepared with a booking hard copy in case there is a serious glitch or misunderstanding, keeping it even and factual if needing to speak to a manager, maintaining reasonable expectations, having an understanding of what a hotel can do and can't do because of factors like occupancy load, etc. It certainly has paid off for me over the years. Prioritizing my battles and expenditure of energies is important to me too; I am just not up to handing a hotel employee so much power they can ruin my trip by their small affronts or mistakes, real or perceived.

And if things go sideways, one can often pull those chestnuts out of the fire with more of the same. In one Canadian property, though I was not directly affected other than by the ambiance, I noted a restaurant manager who was frankly abusive to employees. I wrote a one sheet brief, but factual, sharing of my observations with the manager - I received a thank you note with an invitation to a free stay in the future (a notation was made that the individual in question "is no longer with us").