Xenforo is disgusting. You are right to think that.
Try to do anything and it's incredibly convoluted, not possible or there's a paid add-on that kinda works but there's no guarantee nor support if it doesn't.
What is worse, 90% of the add-ons are not compatible with the latest version of xenforo (2.3).
So even if an add-on exists it will most likely not be compatible with 2.3 or it will be paid, or both.
BTW they are releasing 2.4 soon...that will be a shitshow.
Trying to get the devs to make a basic feature part of core is impossible.