The thing is that people will defend this as a feature of this kind of system, rather than a problem

Well, they tried to use an open source ecosystem by finding an app in a store where devs need to pay to get their apps in. Maybe not the best combination

What do you think non IT people would do?

They wouldn't even know Matrix existed, most likely. They certainly wouldn't have found "Element" on their own.

If they did manage to find Element at all, I would guess that would be through the "try matrix" button on matrix.org, which has an "install Element" button, which then leads to a "download for macOS" button.

More realistically, people would be typing "Matrix" into GPlay or the app store on their phones. The confusing Element/Element X situation would still apply, of course.

If one knows about Matrix/Element, it'll of course be from hearing/reading about it somewhere. And thus if they were just told "discussion is at #foo:example.org on Element" or whatever they'll clearly go for Element (and I've seen "Element" be used for "Matrix" a couple times). Though then at least maybe they wouldn't manage to pass the blame on Matrix for what is an Element problem.