You can entirely start a UG without ever seeing a lawyer and the fees are low, as long as you stick to the standard contracts available. You have to see a notary, though. A lawyer is important if you want to have complicated arrangements between the shareholders - they would essentially write your company charter.
The complicated part about having a limited liability company is that it requires double accounting and strict separation between your personal and the company property and that your books must be testified by an accountant. So you’ll need a tax accountant.
Minor note: having formed a British Ltd, I can tell you that some things are much more confusing for foreigners than you might expect. And some are outright hilariously bad. I could not negotiate a health insurance for our British employees since the insurance folks are not allowed to talk to foreigners - something something personal data something. Yes, I tried multiple companies.
The personal data rules in the UK are essentially the same as those in the EU, but with a huge exemption for "insurance purposes". So it's unlikely that there is a systematic data protection roadblock in the UK that you wouldn't encounter elsewhere in Europe. I can't think what rule you're referring to, so I suspect there was a misunderstanding, perhaps unique either to the company/broker you were dealing with, or unique to you.
I tried multiple companies, and I’m a pretty normal German resident. They all said they’re not allowed to talk about insurance matters with people not residing in the UK. So we basically ended up having a UK person relay all communication, since that is apparently fine.
The complicated part about having a limited liability company is that it requires double accounting and strict separation between your personal and the company property and that your books must be testified by an accountant. So you’ll need a tax accountant.
Minor note: having formed a British Ltd, I can tell you that some things are much more confusing for foreigners than you might expect. And some are outright hilariously bad. I could not negotiate a health insurance for our British employees since the insurance folks are not allowed to talk to foreigners - something something personal data something. Yes, I tried multiple companies.