I take it as part of my mission to democratize bitcoin mining, so in my ideal world it shouldn't be.

Unfortunately, it does require some fundamental knowledge and some research is advised. I do believe there is a sweet spot on how much technical knowledge someone needs, but this sweet spot is still to be found via collective learning and experimentation.

Pleb miners are fundamentally different to industrial miners, and there shouldn't be expectations to achieve the same level of profitability.

For example, the price of residencial energy on most places in the world today make it relatively hard to remain profitable.

That doesn't mean people shouldn't do it, nevertheless. It is still possible for a pleb miner to get small ASIC devices and do solo-mining with it, in a "lottery" style. That is mostly an ideologically driven activity, which could be labeled as "economically irrational". But hey, if you want to help decentralize bitcoin mining and you don't mind having the equivalent of an extra light-bulb on your electricity bill, why not?

Projects like the BitAxe are really helpful for this.