[not-much-io]

Just my 2c:

Paradigm wise: Yes functional programming can seem strange and hard if you haven't done it before. But that really isn't the fault of Elm, elm makes FP as simple as it can.

Language wise: Yes, the Elm architecture takes a bit to grok, but for me it was just an afternoon. Once you grok it, there isn't really much else you need to learn - you can hit the ground running, look up what you need when you need it.

Tooling wise: Just some basic tooling you get will get you very far, no setup either, just install and use.

If you do js interop, yes that can be cumbersome, but it is intentional. Elm strives to keep js out and write libraries in Elm. This is so we can have more of the guarantees that Elm provides. (no runtime exceptions!)

I'd rather say: "Elm has a low entry barrier for a FP language". One of it's main goal is to bring FP to the masses after all. :)