FWIW -

(My assumption is that anyone who does not already have some exposure to the command-line is a lost cause, but I would be happy to be corrected.)

I disagree. You do not need to be familiar with using a CLI to use Emacs. (I use M-x grep, and that's about it, these days.)

* Hence any mention of Lisp seems inappropriate.  We had better hope that Emacs' Out-Of-Box impression is good enough to motivate - in time - an interest in Lisp, rather than presume it.  Even more off-putting are the fine points of various Lisp dialects and Lisp extensions.

Not presuming "an interest in Lisp" is not the same as forbidding "any mention of Lisp". And I disagree that any mention of Lisp is inappropriate.

I agree that no mention need be made of different Lisps or dive into specific aspects of Lisp.

But it can be mentioned that you have available a powerful, easy-to-use (yes), very high-level programming language to extend and interact with Emacs. And yes, this is end-user stuff. (IMHO)

* Displaying Lisp code is probably not a great "come-on".

Simple Lisp code need not be a giant turn-off either, and need not be verboten in this context.