I think that most people who remember the Phantom Menace being released still think about Star Wars as separate trilogies, with the original one being the classic films worth watching. It’s the people who grew up with all of the Star Wars movies that will just assume that Episode I is the place to begin.
Not in this particular case. This guy is my age and should have known better, but he was never into Star Wars like folks around here. He even gave me the “they’re trying to reach a new audience” line when I was vilifying George’s digital scribbling and other dehancements. They honestly thought that not starting at Episode I would “make things confusing”.
I’ll make sure to remember ZkinandBonez and OO5’s point about the PT never explaining the Force etc. next time it comes up.