Imagine the vision of a Blender that is a schools first choice to teach 3D because it is so simple for students to start and learn. That anyone wanting to update their kitchen, or fiddle in their workshop would see as the obvious and simple choice. I believe it can be done, but will need more than UI tweaks to accomplish. I believe there needs to be a dedicated mission, driven from the top, to make such changes.
Bravo, and well put! I thought you did a great job of translating the frustrations of new Blender users (which are not always expressed in the most constructive manner) in to politically skillful communication which seeks to serve and not just critique, with a pinch of flattery tossed in to grease the wheels.
My favorite part of your message was “but will need more than UI tweaks to accomplish”. Yes, a goal as ambitious as “schools first choice to teach 3D” will require a transformation of Blender culture. Or, perhaps an expansion of Blender culture is a better way to put it.
Should you wish to further build on your open letter here in this thread (and/or elsewhere), that would obviously interest me.
As a quick first impression place to start, perhaps it would help to re-imagine Blender not as a single thing but as a universe of tools, a collection of baby Blenders if you will. Creating versions of Blender which schools would embrace would be more a process of subtraction than addition. Or perhaps, more a process of hiding the advanced features until a user make a conscious decision to explore them. We could discuss this in more depth if it interests anyone.
One challenge I see is that the people who will have to do the work of creating more accessible versions of Blender will not benefit from that work. My sense is that this is why Blender has not already achieved your vision.
As example, Trimble benefits by creating entry level versions of SketchUp because that brings new prospects in to their sales pipeline. How does this equation work in Blenderland? Don’t know.
If you wish, keep us updated on where you see this going. Again, nice work.