Too lean: For more experienced users, who already know what they want, the relatively minimalist base without any “bloat” (office software, etc.) is great, but I think including said stuff in beginner distros (e.g. by a checklist post-install, or just straight ootb) is a good thing.
That’s like, your opinion man. This is why I can’t take your writing seriously. “Too lean” is for the user to decide, not you. One man’s “too lean” is another man’s “not bloated”. I’m going to guess you weren’t using computers in the mid 00’s when vendors where including all manner of garbage on default Windows installs. " Lean install" was a huge benefit of Linux to people migrating.
You’re injecting your personal opinions as fact.
You also seem to be assuming “new to Linux” == “new to computers”? Experienced Windows users would be fine with “having to install things”.