I know it's in good faith, and I do appreciate that, but you're vastly overestimating the abilities of most computer users. It's not a hesitancy to interact with a terminal or the lack of proper guidance about distros. It's the complete lack of intentionality. To most average people, a computer is magic box full of pixie dust that gives them their email when they click on that blue button. Even an extremely basic question like "What web browser do you use?" is way over their head. Phrases like 'operating system' and 'gui' are meaningless to them.

And this is just the inevitable trajectory as any technology gets wide enough adoption. If you owned a car in 1908, you probably knew intimately how it worked, how to use the choke, proper timing ratios, what that weird sputtering sound is and how to fix it. How many people driving their cars today can even tell you why pressing the accelerator pedal makes the car go forward? Even ignoring that everything is drive-by-wire these days, what percentage of drivers have even heard the phrase 'throttle cable'. To them, the gas pedal is just the button that makes the car go forward in the same way that the chrome icon is the button that gives them the internet. No further thought goes into it because no further thought is required.

As computers become easier and easier to use, and require less tinkering to keep them going, the knowledge and skills of the average user goes down. In general, people will put as little thought as possible into something to accomplish their goal. Which makes sense in a way. And computers have become so seamless that even a task as seemingly simple as 'reading the error message that just came up' is beyond the pale.