I think that rather than dumbing down UIs in favor of general usability (which is what is suggested here), having a more complex UX with better documentation is paramount. Dumbing down the user experience does nobody any good, because as soon as the user (who has gotten used to the simplified interface) sits down in front of a different interface, he/she will find it extremely difficult to accomplish anything because of the varying metaphors used.
In this case, the user clearly has a very primordial grasp of computing metaphors; present the user with an Android or Windows Phone device and she will clearly be at a loss. The solution isn't pandering to computer illiteracy, it's solving computer illiteracy in the first place. This kind of solution seems like something the United States Congress would come up with, not hackers, who usually opt for the simplest and most effective solution, not an overly tangled one.
Consistency is what matters most in usability and computing, not intuition and certainly not ease of initial use.
In this case, the user clearly has a very primordial grasp of computing metaphors; present the user with an Android or Windows Phone device and she will clearly be at a loss. The solution isn't pandering to computer illiteracy, it's solving computer illiteracy in the first place. This kind of solution seems like something the United States Congress would come up with, not hackers, who usually opt for the simplest and most effective solution, not an overly tangled one.
Consistency is what matters most in usability and computing, not intuition and certainly not ease of initial use.