The more this topic comes up, the more I start to wonder if the "difficulty" in email encryption is actually people just being lazy.

We have IM and texting apps like Signal. You install, and if your friends install then you're secure. Most people skip verifying fingerprints, not doing IRL face to face verification. Yes the install process is simple and requires no real work to start encrypting things, but that still doesn't make the process secure. If anything, having these types of security models where you aren't forced to verify the other end continues to breed this lazy mentality. Security is hard and requires all end users to actually put time and thought into what they are doing. We can always make a better mouse trap when it comes to security but that will not change people's minds on how they interact with security when online.