> I do wonder if all of this can be avoided by teaching users to
> insert `use-package lines/snippets/etc into their .emacs, instead
> of `require. It would also address some slow-start issues at the
> same time.

I started this thread because I was tired of telling people to add package-initialize to their init file, and you want to teach them to use use-package? :-)

The point is that users shouldn't run into trouble for doing such basic configurations. If they have to ask for help on this then I we've already failed.