The point is that the ecosystem is so fragmented now that Googling often doesn’t get you useful answers. You find an article that applies to some version of Ubuntu, but you’re on Fedora, or you’re on a different version of Ubuntu that’s made major breaking changes in basic components (systems, Mir/Wayland/etc). At least back in 2002 most everything used SysV Init and Xorg.

As to your other point—grandma has an iPad. To the extent Linux has relevance in the desktop, it’s for CS students, people setting up a lab of workstations, etc. Simple stuff like setting up a Remote Desktop is squarely within that use-case.