Too many experts who value the deeper teaching potential angle seem to never want to acknowledge the bounce rate it will also have.

No, not everyone asking about how to get into the Linux ecosystem is doing so specifically because the knowledge itself is its own reward. Those who are will tighten their belts, whiten their knuckles, and figure it out just like you hoped they would. Those who aren’t will collapse under the sheer weight of all the bullshit and bail out. Frankly I’d consider the bulk of curious new users to be the latter and I default assume it for everyone who appears unless they indicate otherwise.

Some people think this kind of filtering based on willingness to learn is a good and healthy thing. I call it elitism and gatekeeping.