Glass bottle recycling is about reuse. Wash the bottle and use it again.

In the UK off-licenses (liquor stores) used to partake in a scheme where they’d take your empties and give you money off your next purchase. Those bottles were then sent back to the bottling plant to be reused. It went away with the wide spread use of plastic bottles (80s).

Aas far as I’m aware, there’s no reason not to do it again except the distribution network is more centralised now, and sending stuff back is something nobody budgets for. I expect this is the “too complicated aspect”.