Regardless of the quality of API design, reactive programming (and by extension RxJS) does indeed require a different mental model, as it is a different model for the flow of a program.
> You’ll notice most of the popular and highly successful abstractions all share the common trait of being easy and quick to pick up.
That is subjective. I remember how many people found node's async callback style unintuitive and confusing on first sight, and I personally find (at least the core abstractions of) RxJS pretty intuitive.
> If the author’s haven’t factored in ease of use and uptake it’s already failed at its first principles.
Yes this is part of the goal with CONNECTIVE, to bridge the gap between the description of a reactive flow (the code) and the most intuitive way to think about it (a directed graph), so that the end-result would be much more easily readable and intuitive code. I would love to hear if you have any more specific feedback on this front.