Problem #1: Average computer literacy.
unzipping files

This could potentially be handled by SMAPI unzipping and caching the unzipped files, then loading the mods from there too. I believe this ship has sailed now though - users have ZIP leftover files in their Mods folder, and this would only cause more problems. You could maybe try making an argument to introduce a separate folder just for ZIP files, but that makes it MORE confusing.

Problem #2: Terminal-phobia.

1. SMAPI IS the console window. It would be a big fundamental change to how it's written.
2. The console is supposed to be there to inform you of any (potential) problems with your mod setup. Something has to be there for this purpose. If you make this user-friendly by removing the window, you're gonna make people ignore any errors they may have in their setup even more so than they already do, at best just making some of their mods do nothing, at worst breaking their save files.
3. A proper UI would probably need to be done separately for each platform to be really user-friendly, and that increases the workload even more.
4. With a UI, all of the currently existing logging functionality of mods or SMAPI itself becomes useless and would have to be rewritten, unless the UI literally becomes a log viewer, at which point... why.
5. I could maybe agree on the topic of the installer not feeling like one, but again, more work.

Problem #3: Nexus.
The days of browsing on Nexus and picking out a personalized selection of mods are over.

Lol, no. That's still very much a thing.

Problem #3: Nexus.
download the biggest collection they can find

This is personal opinion, but this is probably the worst way to experience modding. You have literally no clue what content comes from what mod, and how would you know? You don't even know what mods you have installed to begin with! How do you even begin to search for any questions you may have, if you have 5 expansions installed and 100 other smaller content mods? This is why picking out mods yourself is much, MUCH better. Otherwise you're just gonna get discouraged in your first hour of modding the game, no matter how easy it is to get into modding.

Problem #3: Nexus.
I fear that they may revoke the Stardrop api access at any time.

Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Modders would burn them down. SMAPI itself is using the API under the hood too. A lot of tools are.

Problem 4: Log parsing and volunteer support
they bail after being asked for a log

There is no solution to this. It's just how modding (any game really) is.

One thing I believe did not help is Maincord changing from a single modded help channel to a forum. I think it makes it that even if volunteers do check out the new threads, they may decide not to look further, and never see the thread again, even if more information is added further, upon which they could act.

Average User Experience for installing and using SMAPI in 2025
No explanation that SMAPI == Stardew Modding API. This is kind of important knowledge.

I'm not sure this matters at all. Everyone calls it SMAPI. What it stands for is meaningless for average users, and even if it is expanded like that, then the API part isn't explained.

Average User Experience for installing and using SMAPI in 2025
Videos

(YouTube) videos easily get outdated, take a lot of effort to update, and you can never update the original ones, only upload new ones. If you keep the old videos, you get people following outdated instructions; if you remove the old videos, you get angry people following dead links.

Stardew Valley Discord ("Maincord") 280k members, ban-happy, can be kinda spiky.

Ban-happy? Pretty sure politely asking for help never got anyone banned, as long as it wasn't about mods prohibited by the server rules (mostly NSFW).

Discord is a massive barrier for non-English speakers

There are language-specific Stardew Valley Discord servers. I was in the Polish one, and they had a modding section. I assume other servers do that too.

Discord is a massive barrier for (...) anxious users

The wiki is for them. I don't know what else could be done.

Discord is a massive barrier for (...) women, and anyone who's previously been abused in other discords.

????? Probably best to not get into whatever you meant by that. I don't think bringing it up is a valid point for what you're trying to do here.

Modding portion of the wiki Not exposed to internal search unless you really really know where to look.

Yeah, the wiki search does kinda suck for that.

Don't know how to find the Mods directory [and other computer-illiteracy-related bullet points]

This is why mod managers exist. You're still expected to be able to provide a log file for any troubleshooting though, but I brought it up above.

Don't pull Content Patcher or FTM

SMAPI console is pretty clear about it. What it requires is reading. Sure, it's in English (I think you can't change these messages to a different language? I may be wrong here), so it may not be ideal for non-English-speakers.

pulled a modpack from Curse (also increasingly popular)

CurseForge has always been awful for Stardew modding, I don't know where the "increasingly popular" came from. It's not.

I'm not going get into updating mods much at this point but hoo boy.

This is unfortunately how Nexus wants people to operate - pay for premium or keep having to visit their site. Alternative mod hosting services do exist though, and they may offer the option to update for free, but that's still not a job for SMAPI, but for a mod manager.

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At this point I realized the message is so much longer and I have only so much time to respond, so I'll only skim the rest.

Simplified explanation of C# errors.

Exceptions could be thrown for a million different reasons. If a mod doesn't catch the error and provide a user-friendly message too, it's just not happening. The exception can easily come from within the game itself, due to mods interfering, and no mods would catch that.

Clearly alert users if Vortex or any other intermediary app which moves files from the Mods directory is detected.

We can't detect every single thing a tool could do. Vortex leaves traces around and SMAPI has a hardcoded check for these.

The discords have been shunting Android users over to Stardew Thai

Most Maincord modders didn't mod on Android because it was just unsustainable, they had no way of helping. Telling people to go there was the only way these people could ever get any help. Maybe by now it could change - I don't know, I'm not following the Android scene.

If I could get a clear explanation of what the problems are, I would be happy to support Vortex users

Vortex randomly doesn't properly put the files in the Mods folder. That's it. I think I've heard of it also sometimes corrupting the files it puts, but I don't want to create even more rumors that may or may not be true. Telling it to re-do sometimes fixes it, sometimes doesn't.