I switched to iPhone from Android for a few months earlier this year. I don't think I qualify as an elderly person yet (I'm 47) but even I had trouble figuring things out. I don't think it was super-hard to use, but I often found myself asking "Why would they do it like this? Who uses a smart-phone like this?". I just found some things very unintuitive. Take for example re-arranging icons. I don't know if I would ever have figured out this technique without looking it up:
I went through many iPhones, my first iPhone 3G is still lying around. But nowadays I need to look for howto vidoes and blogs for rather simple things. The simplicity is gone, there are too many settings and bugs. Looking for used Google Pixel 9 or 10 Pro Fold to install GrapheneOS and give it a try. It can’t be worse than my iPhone 14 pro max with broken mail.
I definitely agree that Apple have buried the complexity of some features, but moving icons on the Home Screen is press + hold and then drag by default, same as android.
It used to be simpler. I remember it taking years before Apple finally added this ability to move more than one icon at a time, and it’s a change for the better in my opinion. Using it as a reordering technique is a knock-on effect I’d never really thought about, but I think using this to move multiple icons to another page or into a folder makes a lot of sense. I’m not sure how you’d do it better (though I’m sure I’m lacking in UI imagination).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTdZLY9r4lg