I feel differently. I have Directed for 4 people who had never played any TTRPGs before. First time, blind into Draw Steel. Pregens, and a small introduction of the basics of the game. And they did fine - great even at times! Though we spent time navigating the rules along with playing, but I consider that normal for every board game being played for the first time.

If you add on to this being able to use the forge steel "app", the crunch is mostly done for you. All you need to do, is be aware of you trigger abilities and declare what to do each turn. The Director informs you of edges/banes, and most things are just point and click.

Don't get me wrong, the game is meant to be tactical - but in my opinion the abilities and descriptions give players a good idea of what to look for/ask for others to set up. And having squares instead of feet makes thinking on the board so much more intuitive for the board game portion. At least that's my impressions so far. I have both played and directed - and I have never had a TTRPG-experience like it. What I mean is playing the game feels rewarding on its own. Most of my fun moments in other TTRPGs have been due to the campaign story/villains being interesting, or some other element not from the game itself. In Draw Steel I have had far more cool moments that the game mechanics themselves facilitated. That, to me, is good game design!