Hot take: the JMT is not the beginner trail people keep saying it is

Everyone on here keeps pushing the John Muir Trail as a first thru hike and I think that is flat out bad advice. I watched a guy at Thousand Island Lake last August, mile 60 of his first ever trip, sitting on a rock with wrecked knees and blisters the size of quarters, saying he had not trained with a loaded pack once. The elevation is the real problem. You go over 11,000 feet seven times and the passes never stop, and a flatlander from Ohio does not adapt in a week. Snow years make it worse, and the permit system pushes people into narrow start dates whether their body is ready or not. Do 4 or 5 shorter trips first, build up to 15 miles a day with weight, and learn what your feet do past mile 12. Who else has bailed early on the JMT, and what made you call it?