I think it's a mix of the way journalism works in the age of overstimulation (everything is the best/worst anyone has ever witnessed) and old(er) people being unfathomably tech-illiterate.

And I don't even mean that negatively. I often really am unable to fathom how disorienting even the slightest change in a software they're used to is to them.

If my mother were to use the birdsite, and they'd change their theme from blue to red one day, she would literally be unable to use it, because "it's all different now"

Also, mastodon does have some usability problems, though they are not that big imo.