Do renders of environments / characters really take hours on modern hardware?

Sorry for the total surface level question. I've read that rendering "moderately complex" characters and scenes can take hours on top level M4 Macs or desktop 4090s. Is this actually the case?

I've been looking for a new hobby and thought maybe 3D modeling / texturing would be a fun venture, but does it really take hours to render a finished model or environment once all designs and textures / lighting are applied?