I think the language is more of a feature than a detriment: much like Excel, it’s able to get non-programmers to do programming without realizing it. Both tools have a low barrier to entry and a relatively gradual learning curve.
All you have to do set up an AHK script is open up notepad, type a hotkey symbol, then some basic commands like “Click <X>, <Y>” or “Send <keystrokes>”, save the file, and double click to run. Doesn’t get much simpler. Loops and routines can be learned over time as needed, and aren’t necessary to meet most people’s use cases.
I think this has more to do with scripting nature of the language than its syntax itself - at least I always found the best/easiest environments to use in practice to be the ones that:
1) executed in a clear, top-down fashion, allowing to write code top-level, without wrapping it in functions and calling from an explicit entry point like main();
2) interfaced directly with the useful APIs, vs. having to manage libraries and namespaces;
3) interpreted directly from the source file, as opposed to having first run a compiler or other explicit, artifact-producing step;
Basically, languages that would let me just write minimum amount of code to solve, through trial and error and experimentation, my simple problems.
I believe this is where some Lisp language would shine, if not for the fact that you have to press SHIFT to enter parentheses... I suspect this is a large reason people ended up preferring scripting languages with punctuation that can mostly be entered without modifier keys.
All you have to do set up an AHK script is open up notepad, type a hotkey symbol, then some basic commands like “Click <X>, <Y>” or “Send <keystrokes>”, save the file, and double click to run. Doesn’t get much simpler. Loops and routines can be learned over time as needed, and aren’t necessary to meet most people’s use cases.