I'd say both of those statements are true. Learning curves cannot be eliminated, but we should strive to make them as easy to climb as possible.
We could introduce a new concept, beside access rules, this would be "user knowledge level" or something like that. At installation, we could ask the user if he is a newbie or an advanced admin or something in between. Then, the UI could be adapted and some options eliminated for newbies. The important point here is the fact that you are talking about a learning *curve* which means that user knowledge will improve. I don't think an install profile would be a good solution, because it would stuck the user with a dumbed down blogging interface. When you decide to use Drupal for a blog and you are a newbie, it's because you see that there is a lot of room for extension (and in a very clean way). If it was possible to hide the complex stuff and make it available at the change of a user preference, this would ease the job of newbie admins (those with id = 1) At the same time advanced users will be happy with the already available full admin menu. Some software use this kind of adaptive UI, like Azureus bittorent client. See first screen here http://azureus.sourceforge.net/screenshots_v2.php My 0.02 as usual Philippe ps : note that this could be implemented using user roles. A "newbie" role could be added at install time if requested