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The intended audience are people who haven't yet got into Emacs, and are therefore not familiar with Elisp, the packages and the options. Of course if you have a basic understanding of Emacs and an overview of the package space (and perhaps the time + motivation), you don't need anything like this.

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Isn't that Customize's intended audience as well?

I wouldn't say so, customize is a useful interface to get an overview of all the options a package or feature might provide, but without any order or structure beyond the group hierarchy.

I don't know what's the basis for denying it, but the parent is correct about the intention when it was developed. I don't understand why it should be thought to imply Lisp knowledge. It is useful to lay out the customization possibilities, but that's a bonus.

Ok, I might have misread the comment. But to clarify my own position, I it doesn't necessarily have to be the lack of Experience with Elisp, but with the way you use Emacs and how it behaves (managing buffers and windows, how scrolling works, the little differences in how GUI features behave, etc.). To make use of the easy customization interface, and not get frustrated by it, it help to have some basic experience with Emacs. My intention is to provide a guided tour of what someone might want to have in Emacs, before they begin using it. That way they can get common annoyances out of the way before starting, and have less friction when dealing with whatever remains.

Again, not questioning your goals/intentions at all.

I'm more questioning the reaction to the project. The project suggests some ways that Customize could be improved, but the reaction doesn't seem to match that.

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