Giving a “false” first impression of having a low barrier to entry is the same thing as having a low barrier to entry, because the real barrier to entry is, “I’ve never programmed; I don’t think I can write any code at all.”
Considering the history of IF, what did you expect to happen instead? Like, when Inform 7 came out, would you have expected Inform users to stick with Inform 6? (Or switch to TADS?)
Most people/companies use Interface Builder to this day; layout in code is the exception that proves the rule in modern macOS/iOS development.