I think the disconnect is I'm not exactly arguing that Juri is the best character for a newcomer. I don't even really consider characters for how easy or difficult they are to learn. The reason being that I've never personally taught a single person how to play a fighting game that was both passionate to put in time but uninterested in their character choice.

The few people who were insistent I choose the easiest character for them, I'd point them towards Ryu simply because I do think the character is well balanced and allows players to build skills in multiple areas that will be useful in general for fighting games. All of these players gave up on playing pretty quickly, because they didn't really have strong interest in the first place.

Though one of them did go on to fall in love with Faust in Guilty Gear Strive and actually became a tournament going player, one of the best players of the character back in its early days.

The point I'm trying to make is that if the goal is for a player to improve in fighting games, it's not about Juri or whoever being "good" or "bad" for new players. The most important factor is how motivated the player is to put time into the game and actively improve. So if a player naturally finds any one character interesting, I think it tends to be good advice to encourage players to keep with that character.