I’ve noticed that Blender has a really hard time unwrapping some shapes that should be exceedingly simple to do. The one in the picture below is a completely flat surface, yet what I get on the UV layout is hugely distorted for no reason that I can tell.
Triangulating the massive n-gon in the middle seems to help a little, but not entirely. Is there anything I can do to prevent this kind of distortion from happening other than do a project from view on every single piece?
Put it in an orthographic view and then unwrap “Project from view”.
I was afraid that this was going to be the only solution. I’ll probably have to do this, but it’s tedious because if you’re not careful stuff starts getting projected at different scales as you move around your model to get the right angles.
What unwrap method are you using ? Conformal is generally better for hard surfaces and Angle Based for more organic forms
Large Ngons can lead to unwrap issues, try and avoid
Check seam placements will give a clean unwrap, particularly 3d curved objects
Ensure you have applied any object scale before unwrapping
Split objects into manageable sections with seams, you can combine them afterwards in the UV Editor
You don’t have to use the same unwrap options for the whole model. No need to unwrap everything at once
Try and ensure good topology. Crappy messy modelling -> crap unwrap
If that surface is completely flat, then project from view would give you the best result, in my opinion. Don’t forget you can scale all of your uv shells relative to each other once they’ve been unwrapped. Just hit CTRL-A with all the shells selected.
Blender compares very well with commercial applications where UVs are concerned. 
Expecting an NGon of that size with attached smaller polys is bound for a poor UnWrap. NGons are fine for initial construction, but a shift to Quads and select Tris, is the only way to go for clean UV work. Try to have the larger area polys of similar size will help.
To blame the tool, for the lack of work by the crafter, does neither any service. Rework the large surface and notice the difference. And, Yes, this will happen in other 3D programs, it is user error, rarely program fault, in my experience.