It also lets people set themselves up to engage with the thing in a way that works well for them. If they go into it thinking "oh, this is like installing wind

It also lets people set themselves up to engage with the thing in a way that works well for them. If they go into it thinking "oh, this is like installing windows" and then their expectations violated, they will be frustrated. If they go into it thinking "oh, this is a way to get more out of a computer, if I'm willing to do some debugging." then they can think "well, I'm the type of person that does things best when I've got a solid theoretical grounding. Let me go get a book first." or "well, this could be a puzzle, let me get a sandwich before I attempt this." Working with Linux is indeed frustrating at times, but it can be well-worth mustering the frustration-tolerance. But to do that, you've got to know yourself and know what you're getting yourself into.