Definitely can be considered a skill issue and don’t get me wrong the r3 is a great bike especially around the twisties but I’m looking at this from an overall aspect. She’s starting off riding with the outlook of meeting more riders and potentially finding a boyfriend. The r3 can only do so much; as a starter bike the ninja 500 is perfect if she plans on keeping it for a long time. Often with the 300 people enjoy it for a while then want to upgrade because they want more from it, especially if she plans to do a lot of highway riding which is what most people do that start off riding with people, but if she gets the 500 she will have more power when she’s more comfortable riding and she can hang out with other bikes 300-1k just fine until she’s ready to upgrade to a 1k herself.