vim ftw.
I’ve done this for years with people in my family - either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. All most of them use is the browser, word processor, spreadsheets and an image and media viewer.
For Desktop Environment I stick to KDE or something that looks and acts similar to Windows XP.
I get very few complaints.
Most people just want something that works and isn’t cluttered.
I might spend 30 minutes after a distro install getting things right, once I have it set up I don’t tinker with it much.
This is a project that needs more publicity.