My perception of Plasma is that’s too complex, even for me. While Gnome’s logic is very different, it’s not difficult to grasp, to be effective with it.
Anyway, if we’d go with the theme. Are there some you’d like to recommend? I’m still balancing between going with Gnome and teaching them it, and just going with the Plasma and making it similar to what they had.
The less options, the better for a new person to jump in. Modern Gnome is a DE I can recommend everyone. ‘It’s like Mac but simpler,’ I advertise it. I like it even as a pro user, though. But even if we, the pro users, couldn’t work with it, that’s okay. Many pro users hate modern Gnome, and use other environments. But having one with limited options and an opinionated design hurts nobody, and helps a lot. I can install it for an elderly parent or a friend, and they can use it without much assistance, as it’s not very far from their tablet or smartphone.
My bet is that there’s some weirdly complex things that become too niche edge cases that are difficult to transfer.
My opinion is when your logic becomes too complicated, maybe you want to have some sort of custom software. But, on the other hand, I understand that if it works already, there’s no need to break it either.
What you meant is not simple, but rather familiar. While I agree, my mother used Windows for many years, but she forgot that experience partially, due to using iPad for like 15 years. So, Gnome is simpler for her, as it’s similar to her most recent experience.