I think leaving Gnome-Software to default to Flatpak was also an error. It causes a great deal of frustration and confusion for new migrants from Windows OS.
Their expectation is to use the Store (Or Boutique) and it install a standard package that is stable and works.
Instead, they get an alternative package format that is cutting edge, often cannot communicate with the system without additional configuration, says it is one size but downloads a larger size; They ask about it, then get the speech about alternate packages - and get hit upside the head with opinionated negativity about these alternate packages. To them - things just quickly got complicated.
And, their first impressions are about political in-fighting in GnuLinux.
It has much greatness to offer. I am not always a mood-kill:
I am fair, though. The aim of windows OS migrants is to get away from what Microsoft is doing and a distro that promises to ease that transition should be as far from Microsoft behavior as possible.