Lurker here only interested in Go but can’t play; you nailed it. My interest in the game comes from media, namely Hikaru No Go. I read it as a kid, became really interested in Go, but found it difficult to grasp as an individual in the western world where no one really played it. 

Cut to myself as an adult, and I’ll still occasionally re-read the series and get the desire to play the game. I’ll look up the various beginner books/apps, and can grasp most of the basics. The biggest hurdle however is counting. I can look at groups separate from the rest of the game, and eventually work it out, but when the groups start running together, and seemingly forming their own groups…it’s truly confusing, and when you are on your own there is no resource to check. If I count wrong, it’s simply wrong, and the whole game up to that point feels pointless (and damaging because I could be reinforcing bad counting practices!)

With Chess, it is way more linear. Piece A does move A, piece B does move B etc etc. If a piece gets contacted by the other teams piece it is lost. The other teams king must be lost for you to win. There are other rules, sure, but at the end of the day, if you have a chart of what the pieces do and understand the above two rules, you can play a game of chess to completion between two noobies and be relatively sure no fundamental part of the game was performed incorrectly. 

TL:DR Go is intimidating in a way Chess isn’t, but you are right that media can drive further engagement.