They made it easier. Still far far from easy. Especially at the level that is claimed necessary by proponents of popular editors.
That is, my claim was geared to the IDE it ships with. And pointing out how successful it is despite any shortcomings that may have, precisely because of how empowering it is to users. In large, most of that empowerment is heavily invested in through maker fairs, magazines, and YouTube outreach.
And I find it hard to see how the ridiculous level of empowerment in emacs couldn't benefit from the same outreach.
I'm a long-term Emacs user (18.55 is the first version I can recall using); by comparison, I find even VSCode frustratingly limiting (but it's what I've gotten my kids started using).
Emacs is ultra-powerful and configurable, but the default configuration feels entirely foreign to users of modern computers, starting with the keybindings which are enough to turn most people off.
IMO, there's nothing inherently better about Esc Z Z vs C-x C-s C-x C-c. That was the state of "competition" back in 1989. There's something inherently easier to remember about ⌘-s ⌘-q, especially when nearly every app uses that same key sequence (and the analogous C- sequence on Windows).
I don't know who would benefit from orchestrating a massive outreach effort for Emacs (and therefore who'd fund it with time and money). Emacs won't die off, but given the overall balance of forces, it's pretty well destined to be a niche editor I think.
I think there is some accidental goal post shifting. I don't know that anyone cares if emacs gets more profile. The desire was for lisp to get more exposure.
To your point, though, I think I agree. Though, the rise in web based environments calls into question the accuracy of the claim. Notably, key bindings are completely messed up in browsers. And that is where my kids get most of their exposure. That and phones/tablets. Which... Just make me hurt when I try to use them for serious stuff.
Oh, man. I’d ignored/forgotten the nonsense inherent in my experience with browser-based environments, but then I think to my kids readily taking to scratch and how easy the learning curve was for them.
Perhaps the common theme is “the first five minutes matters a ton”, which might apply to Lisp advocacy (albeit at a slightly longer timeline, but still in the first couple hours experience that you can compare to node or React Native’s excellent “unboxing” experience).
That is, my claim was geared to the IDE it ships with. And pointing out how successful it is despite any shortcomings that may have, precisely because of how empowering it is to users. In large, most of that empowerment is heavily invested in through maker fairs, magazines, and YouTube outreach.
And I find it hard to see how the ridiculous level of empowerment in emacs couldn't benefit from the same outreach.