Is that clear from their homepage?
> Ease of use → grandpa-friendly certified™
If I wasn't tech savvy and I stumbled into Puppy, I'd assume it was targeting non-tech savvy people based on that statement at the top of the homepage. Then I'd likely feel burned by "Linux" when it wasn't. There is a marketing problem there.
Although in that example, why is a mainstream user looking at puppy in the first place? So I think you're right, that's a cherry picked example.