Even smart people have limited time and limited capacity for effort. Failure to Just Work is sand in their gears. Hand-rolled Linux TVs are a nonstarter.
I cannot help but laugh at anyone on a hacker forum that thinks this is hard.
Apple marketing has made people too lazy to put an OS on a flash drive, plug it in, and hit next a few times.
If my wife had to install an OS before using a computer, yeah, I think she could do it. But she'd find it such an incovenience compared to her Mac, which came with the easiest to use modern OS all ready to go out of the box.
Tech is no different.
It is crazy that it is controversial to recommend an hour of effort for people to gain dramatically more freedom and sovereignty.
It is even more crazy I am in the clear minority with this view on a hacker forum.
If the only thing humans value in tech is convenience, we are all fucked.
(Don't worry, it just works)