I'm not sure that is a bad first radio. When I got my Technician license, repeaters were more or less what were available to me anyway. I got a hand-held and no

I'm not sure that is a bad first radio. When I got my Technician license, repeaters were more or less what were available to me anyway. I got a hand-held and non-hand-held but ended up using the hand-held more often as it was always with me. People get into ham radio for different reasons — not always for technical reasons. And then people's interest in a hobby can change over time as well — perhaps they begin to get long-distance curious.