I've gotten a few people on element and some of them even use it to varying degrees! Don't bother with the "federation" thing, just let them go with matrix.org or tell them what server to use and how to make element use it on sign up, even better if you can say "lemme see that phone real fast" and hand it back saying "type a username and pass, don't lose the pass!"

My issue is the IOS client for element won't let people sign up without email AND removes the "email notifications for this acct" tic box thingy, so you need to use a junk email or sign in on the pc client (or web client) and then check that box which works acct wide. I use GrapheneOS but for my IOS friends it is a pain during sign up, and they never want to give it the ability to notify (which imo is pretty important in a chat application), I just don't get iphone users tbh.