It's not only the math involved in the creation of a bitcoin, there's also economics and networking and psychology involved. Granted, most people don't understand how money really works, but grasping a dollar bill in your wallet is easier than the a virtual something on some virtual place.

See? I even feel dumb trying to explain why people feel dumb.

Sure - the economic dynamics and valuation are complicated (I don't understand them either), but I don't think that is what the article was talking about.

The tech is fairly simply, at least the principles. As simple as basic cryptography, anyway. And most people use that on a daily basis.

The whitepaper is mostly in layman's terms. It isn't hard, think many just refuse to start from the start.

http://nakamotoinstitute.org/bitcoin/