Yes, they can try many ways to get it done. However, the effort and time that they would pay is indeed diminishing the will to contact the owner. It's not a fair comparison. Even if you give it an email index from world bank, that still doesn't tell how normal citizens' acquaintance in using email.

What if there's no kid though? My MIL lives alone, and this is the kind of thing you can't explain over the phone.

Speaking from experience as we once tried to help her to connect to a open WiFi which needed an OTP-based login via the phone and gave up after about 15 frustrating minutes for all three of us!

It's never easy explaining anything computer related over a phone.

I've noticed working in design that people generally underestimate the average human's ability to solve problems, even if they aren't technically literate. But any increase in the effort department would reduce the amount of returns no doubt.