If you want to make programming inaccessible to newcomers, start making special characters that inexplicably mean special things... like # means 'private' when placed in front of a function.
That is a legitimate concern. Even if the person isn't new to programming and is coming from other C-like languages such as Java or C#, there's a good deal of precedence. Just like the "Don't Make Me Think" usability argument, we ought to stick with the conventions that people already know and are familiar with.