The screen is too small for the elderly. You're not going to get much information on there if you have to show large text, assuming that's even possible.

I think the idea is in the ballpark but the form factor is not ideal. The screen should be much bigger so notes can be left for others - maybe from scribbles rather than voice - and calendars and shopping lists can be seen from across the room.

This looks like someone at Apple took a recent Alexa and said "We should do one of those" instead of something more adventurous.

That depends on what they want to use it for, but we got an Echo Show 8 for my elderly mother in law years ago for video conferencing and she loves it. Other than video conferencing she mostly uses for voice tasks like checking the weather, setting a timer or playing music so the screen doesn't need to display any text.

If not for the need for video conferencing, she'd have been fine with an audio only device.