I recommend people start off on either elementary or mint depending on the walled garden they’re used too. It seems to make the transition easier; especially for those who are less interested in tech and see the OS as a means to an end.

Some people just don’t want to learn new ways of working, regardless of how much it benefits them in the long run. My 78 year old grandad being my most recent convert to elementary (after a lifetime of mac OS).

He hasn’t had any issues with the transition thus far. Everything is where he expects it to be, I don’t think he’s even realised libre office is a different application to Microsoft office. Whilst I’m sure he’d have the capability of working out Ubuntu; I also think the effort would be enough to push him back towards Mac.

But yeah, a near 80 year old can use Linux without any training or problems, which I feel really emphasises your original point around Linux stability.