Yeah, I agree. I’ve been playing for 20+ years and still have every guitar I’ve ever owned. Sometimes I’ll play a couple of the beginner guitars that sit in my closet, and they are almost impossible to play. The action is so high that barre chords never sound clear, and it’s extra brutal on the fingers. If I were just leaning on one of these, I’d give up thinking that the guitar is an impossible instrument.
The best advice is to just try guitars out. There are some relatively cheap ones that play quite well, but certainly the first act guitars and those types are not among them. Just check them out, even an inexperienced player should be able to tell which guitars are easier to press the strings down on.