I'm sorry if you're finding the password instructions onerous. The MIT network has been plagued for the past few years with hackers breaking into people's accounts. These compromised accounts are then used to attack other sites, send out thousands of pieces of spam, or even fraudulently order expensive items. One method of making it harder for the hackers to compromised these accounts is to use harder passwords.
One good way of setting an acceptable password is to combine together:
1) a word (more than three letters)
2) several numbers (not all the same number, or in a row like "123")
3) a second word (more than three letters)