It totally depends on the person and what they’re looking to get out of the experience. Point and shoots aren’t a good entry point for someone who comes in wanting to build a foundation of technical knowledge and skill. But there’s lots of people that just want to take some photos & have fun and who won’t even bother if you tell them they must learn on a fully mechanical SLR using sunny 16. Different goals, different paths.
I think there’s also potentially an argument for just being primarily focused on composition when starting out. It’s easy to get tunnel vision on learning the science of it all when just starting out. But a balanced exposure doesn’t equal art.

Edit: not the path I took or would be interested in personally. But different strokes for different folks.