However, flat structures are harder to use, and people tend to use Google Docs less than the shared network folders when Word existed.
We like to overdramatize the importance of computer literacy because we take it for granted that computers are our livelihood, not some principled quest of self-betterment to understand the world.
We're like a group of mechanics finishing each other's sentences over how everyone should know how a carburetor works, and then circlejerking over how we "failed the people" with the move to power steering. And don't even get us started on how push-button ignition set the public's car literacy back 100 years from the golden age of turning a key to really understand the inner workings of locomotion.
It feels to me that tech will eventually hit a point where there's only two ways to interact with it. Either you're a "typical user" who has a glass orb you speak into and pray that it does what you ask without shattering to prevent tinkering, or you're a programmer who gets a command line and that's it.
With ubiquitous computing, the ratio of children who understand to children who don't is a little higher than when I grew up, but not that much. Clearly, some children grew up with me who were willing didn't get the skills because they had no access, but lots of kids are either need directed instruction to attain technical literacy, or are unwilling or incapable of attaining it.
Where do kids growing up with iPads even see a URL?
You’d be shocked how bad they even are at using a physical keyboard and trackpad in 2020
You may be right, but it's hard to see why this would be a concern in 2020. The number of users who have actually grown up with URLs in their childhood increases all the time.