I agree that awe and accessibility are often opposed, and that children are easily inspired by things that feel tractable but not boring

I like the idea that we can teach children to feel inspiration instead of intimidation when learning how things work

I loooove the idea of teaching children inspiration instead of intimidation. Everything in the built world was made by a person just like you and me. That person may have had special training or unique experiences, but we too can move towards training and experiences and build/do cool things.

One of the ways I try to do this with my kid, is to try to investigate what's behind what we see and interact with -- with technical stuff it's asking how it works and how things fit together, with social stuff it's asking what's going behind the scenes and getting involved with it. Then reflecting on how cool the technical thing or event/social machinery is and what function it serves. This has been generative of tons of great questions from my kid and great discussion with them.

There is an interesting interplay between mystery and motivation. Churches/theologians generally are good with this interplay.