Microsoft was amazingly successful at creating a GUI and interface that you could set anyone in front of and they’d be able to figure out basic usage in half an hour with relatively little direction

Huh? Windows is a confusing mess. I don't think this is true at all. Windows was successful at being in businesses, and the what I learned at work became what I use at home.

Edit: I know this from experience, I set up a lot of linux users over the years. No computer experience: Linux was just as easy, if not easier thanks to package management, than windows.

I watched new computer people struggle with windows far more often.

Then there was the I barely know windows user switching to Linux who complained about the whole thing because of their ingrained habits.