I'm a Rails dev at $JOB, currently flirting with Phoenix, and while I think that both Elixir and Phoenix are really solid and even quite enchanting, I don't think they're the best choice for someone's first contact with webdev. Most people are more comfortable with imperative languages and Elixir only adds to the initial friction of not knowing the proper webdev lingo and concepts.
> Most people are more comfortable with imperative languages
Unscientific poll with possibly a biased sample: more people find functional easier to work with. But telling, the difference is more pronounced among bootcampers and informally educated programmers than formally educated programmers https://twitter.com/DNAutics/status/1459348334007787526.
Not to mention that Elixir is basically "mostly functional but you don't have to faff around with monads or anything to do imperative".
