I think that's partly true, but the other aspect of it is that there are a lot more people who want to start learning a language than those have made it past a

I think that's partly true, but the other aspect of it is that there are a lot more people who want to start learning a language than those have made it past a beginner level. Apps like Duolingo and others also completely neglect giving the language learner longer passages of text to read or videos to watch. Most learners do this on their own, but it does take a tremendous amount of prep work to find the appropriate materials. Once you have the materials, you need a way to re-enforce what you've learned. I was doing this with Anki and found it very cumbersome and time-consuming to do.