Ghosting feels easier because you’re shipping the discomfort to someone else.

Disappearing does not remove the awkward conversation, it transfers it. You skip two uncomfortable minutes and the other person gets several weeks of wondering what they did, which is a much larger quantity of the same substance. From the inside it never feels cruel, only like avoiding, and avoiding feels like nothing at all.

Send the short version instead: that you are not going to continue, with no reasons required. Four plain sentences will cover it. Whatever discomfort that costs you is smaller than the amount you were about to hand over.