The absolute worst thing about going to the Apple store is figuring out how to flag someone down if they're busy. For that reason alone, I've stopped recommending Apple products to my older relatives. Once upon a time, the dominant factor was that the walled garden allowed them to feel less intimidated by their technology, which left them feeling like their devices were vastly more capable, even when they technically had fewer features. Now, the dominant factor is that, when they need help, they need the ability to talk to a human, and Apple is no longer supplying easy access to humans, they've put all the certified resellers who did offer that service out of business, and I personally do not scale. Best Buy and Microcenter, on the other hand, still have a place right at the front of the store, next to the entrance, where you can go get help from a human without having to make an appointment on a cleanly-designed-to-the-point-of-being-confusing-for-many-people website first.
I'm sure Apple believes they've streamlined things immensely by getting rid of the whole "here's a place you can wait in line to do X" thing, but, like you said, at least some of the benefit they're seeing is probably illusory, because it leaves them with no great way to measure how long people have to wait to talk to someone in the first place, or how many people are giving up without ever successfully talking to someone. What they really need to do is put a triage desk right by the entrance of every Apple store.