@Ben Fox - Ben, "lowest common denominator"? Have you seen the recent stats about how many Boomers are taking to computers for the first time in their "golden" years? That's becoming a MASSIVE demographic.

You say that, like a screwdriver, someone has to teach you first. That I think is the crux of my argument - that it should be an intuitive interface. You shouldn't HAVE to go seeking out non-existent support or meetups or going to the so-called help forums, where I've seen far too many innocent requests for help either totally ignored or rudely dismissed. I know that the users are not the program, and I don't hold WordPress responsible for their behavior, but in any group that has such stratification there's bound to be problems for the beginners.

There have been several well-made points in this thread about WordPress being capable of simplicity, and I agree. But the first time that someone wants to add that dreaded thumbnail to a non-enabled theme, or they have to go to yet another site to sign up for Askimet protection, or even look with envy at their neighbor's blog that has a full-sized header instead of the pixel-wide dwarf that their site is sporting, then I think that Pandora's Box has been opened and the chance of encountering some degree of frustration is only going to increase.