I’m of two minds. On one hand I agree, it’s gotta be dead simple. On the other hand I think the public is more capable than it seems. People figured out email and the mess that is Windows. The fediverse just feels like a lot because it’s new. Some better branding is in order though, like your example of not using the word “instance”.

I often think it would be better to obfuscate the federation aspect altogether. Most users don’t need to know or care that a post or user came from another instance. But I think that path will ultimately be more confusing than just having the small learning curve.