what are you talking about, not complicated? I've got a brand new intake all layed out ready to go on my wife's car, and I can count over 14 individual chunks of metal.
Lesson time! Ok, I'm sure you're familiar with intake pulsing - air bouncing off the intake valves that suddenly are closed and pulsing back up the intake, bouncing back off the intake and going back towards the valve. You want those pulses of air hitting the valve at the same time it opens for maximum effeciency.
Thus, the long set of runners, for use below 4k rpm. The long tubes provide enough length for the air to bounce back at the lower, slower RPMS.
Once the rpms get up there, though, those tubes are just too narrow and too long for the air to efficiently move at the higher speeds and faster valve action of the higher RPMS. that's why the butterflies open up, to divert air to the wide, short runners that deliver a must faster pulse length. Basically, it gives you two different torque curves, both optimized to the RPM band that you're in.
Most intakes use a medium width, medium length runner as sort of a compromise between the two situations, but it's not optimal. This intake does not compromise, and that's why you feel that huge kick in the pants when you hit 4k RPM... if those butterflies are working! It's like VTEC, but a lot better.