The things you've listed as R being better at are things that no typical Excel user contemplates doing (i.e. blogging, processing 5GB data sets). You're also i

The things you've listed as R being better at are things that no typical Excel user contemplates doing (i.e. blogging, processing 5GB data sets). You're also ignoring that out of the box Excel comes with a wide range of features that just don't exist in R. Most important for the typical user is being able to format and edit their "data" and calculations as they go with immediate updates on dependent cells. Take your typical Excel user and explain to them that R is significantly more powerful, and they will stop listening the first time they get the arrow wrong on a variable assignment. You probably won't even get that far because the idea of a typing a variable name is foreign even though they've been using "variables" hidden behind cell references. "Why am I assigning a variable... in Excel I just type my data where I want it and click when I want to use it".