Semicolons are not hard to use; however, they can be risky in the wrong hands.  We are more comfortable with commas because they are cheap, easy to deploy and don't call much attention to themselves whether present or missing; semicolons, on the other hand, tend to call a halt to everything and say, "look at me!"  Why?  Because they show a good author paying attention to a sentence, its structure and rhythm, its balance and weight--unless they show that a poseur has turned up garishly dressed for the wrong party.