Regarding what is more intuitive - buttons or swipes... It is yet another example of folks conflating 'intuitive' with 'familiar'.

As far as I am concerned, either approach can work if the rest of the UI is designed well.

Everyone has an example, here is mine. My other half had been using an old Nokia candybar, like everyone else.
In 2009, I gave her her first smartphone, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It took her a while to get used to the screen only interface, but with the help of the stylus, she mastered it. But still used it only as a phone and camera, not for any 'smart' stuff, like reading emails.
In 2014, I gave her a Jolla. She never really warmed up to it. For the first three years I saw it mostly laying on the shelf, unused. But about 2 yars ago she started taking it with her and using it for emails and occasionally browsing. Still using the 5800 as her primary phone.
She had been moaning about the deficiencies of Jolla and Sailfish ever since she picked it up. No social cr@p, even Slackfish mostly unusable. Her friend had an iPhone and praised it to heavens and, as is usually the case with a bad master blaming the tools, she assumed that an iPhone would automatically solve all her problems and satisfy all her needs. Well, tough. There is no way I could afford a grand (slang for a thousand pounds) for a new iPhone and I was not going to get her a used one for birthday, so I got her an Android. Not a flagship but a very decent mid-range.
And here comes the rub. I constantly see her struggling with it, trying to use swipes to do stuff