Are there mechanisms which make learning programming significantly easier which don't have marked limitations? (e.g., the limitations of BASIC (esp. early imprlementations) vs. C)

I find it striking that this article references

Brooks, Fred, No Silver Bullets, IEEE Computer, vol. 20, no. 4, 1987, p. 10-19.

but doesn't cite one of the more notable responses:

https://drdobbs.com/there-is-a-silver-bullet/184407534/

where that language (Objective C) coupled with the NeXT libraries/objects made possible Steve Jobs' "5-minute Word Processor Demo"

Do Swift (and SwiftUI) change this calculus?

It seems you're conflating "easy to write complex software" with "easy to learn how to program." Just because you're using a language/environment that offers more powerful, high-level features doesn't mean you're learning more. If anything, being forced to learn the low-level stuff probably gives you a deeper understanding of programming, even if your output is lower in the beginning.

After all this time, I am not all that convinced that Object Oriented Programming was all that much of a sliver bullet. Its impact is less that Cox claimed, in my opinion.