In my experience, it is somewhat confusing for non-technically minded people to grasp the protocol side of things. I guess this aspect needs to be explained in a way that is easy to understand.

The way to sell the protocol to people would be to build some amazing apps on it, because I don't think the average person would care as much about the protocol itself, as long as they get the basics. Just like most people probably don't understand how the smtp protocol works, even through they use email every day.

"Your keys, your content - works with any platform running on nostr." sort of thing.