I think the wider point I mean is that comets don't give a shit about how pretty they look to us, so it's a tad absurd to consider them disappointing.
However, I only meant to point out that it could really dissuade beginners from every trying astronomy again, if such a "spectacular" once in a lifetime thing is just a little smudge which they can barely see through a telescope, so faint so far in fact that it would be very difficult for them to even find. Unlike truly spectacular commets, which are plainly visible to the naked eye, and for which hitting the tail is easy and following it to the nucleus is easy enough (and exciting) even for a beginner. I'm afraid a lot of people are buying telescopes just for this and may be disappointed that they can't even find it. Hopefully they aren't too disappointed and can eventually make good use of their scopes.
PS: too see a really spectacular commet, check out pictures of commet Mcnaught from just a few years ago. Absolutely incredible.