I agree with you. That might be why people only use a few apps even if they download 100. It's just really hard to learn the user interface of every single app.

Nice username btw.

Non-technical users also get REALLY confused/upset about routine app updates that change the UX in any way whatsoever.

They learn these apps differently than "we" do.

They (again, particularly older users who didn't grow up with GUIs) don't understand GUI paradigms, so they compensate by memorizing... even a small change to their memorized flow is highly disruptive because they cannot reason about how to get back onto the happy path.

(It's like the old, pre-GPS-navigation days when you went on a road trip with a stack of printed out directions from MapQuest. It was great, until you missed a turn and had no idea how to get back on track...)

Ideally, yeah, non-technical users could just invest a little time learning common UX paradigms. But a lot of people just won't. And really, GUIs were just a means to an end anyway. Maybe we just need to meet them where they're at with a more unified, naturalistic interface. The word "maybe" is of course doing a lot of work.