This. My arrival in Discourse world is still fresh enough that I can tell you I found the interface (as a user here on Meta) quite confusing and overwhelming, and it’s not just because of the brain injury 
There is a lot going on on the screen, and it’s great when you’re familiar with it because it allows you to do so much, but it’s really « noisy » when you’re just arriving. (Related: a topic somewhere — where? That’s the brain — where we toyed with the idea of a super pared down them for TL0/1 users for example.)