Funny, I've mentioned "ease of use" and "rails" to a few rails friends, and most have said something along the lines of "Rails was never pitched as easy to use - I've no idea where people get the idea that Rails was intended to be easy to use!". It may be just them, but I've heard it from more than a few Rails people (though not universally).
Personally, it feels a bit revisionist, because I distinctly remember the Rails fans in 2006/2007 talking about how easy Rails made web development. But... perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me as I get older.
Rails was easy to use/learn in 2006/2007, and, coming from a background of 5 years of writing Java web apps, it was vastly easier than doing that mess.
I'm not saying it was or wasn't easy to use or learn, but I've had a few people tell me that it was never promoted as such by Rails proponents, only that it was a "better" way.
Again, my memory tells me that supporters at the time promoted it as easy as well, but I'm not finding much particular support material from 2006 on Rails (perhaps my google/archive-fu needs work).
Personally, it feels a bit revisionist, because I distinctly remember the Rails fans in 2006/2007 talking about how easy Rails made web development. But... perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me as I get older.