I disagree. I’ve recommended ProtonMail to many novice users and helped them get setup. It is so simple that I suspect many less technical users are using it in countries with oppressive regimes.
No, he's saying that some (possibly many) users know how to use the service, but not VPNs or TOR. Therefore, they are easily blocked, compared to advanced users.
He's saying they'll use tunneling to get around the block so they can carry on using it.