One of the first knife gifts that I gave was a Nakiri. I've given a few away now, all to owners who were coming from german knives, and where new to j-knives, carbon, and cutting with any motion other and rockn' chop. They have all be well received and have become the most used knives at their new homes.
A think that a nakiri makes a great "new" knife for a few reasons:
Some folks mentioned the profile not working for rock chopping as a negative, but if you're trying to learn / teach used chop, push, draw and hybrid cutting motions, then it's actually a positive to have a knife with a profile which was designed for those motions.
It's a shorter in OAL, so it's manageable and not intimidating, but the actual usable mostly flat spot is as long as that of a much bigger gyuto (most novices don't use the "belly" section of their 8" chef's knives, so the section that typically does all the work is the rear 2-3") so they can actually start getting used to working with bigger piles of food without having to go to a much longer blade.
The extra edge-to-spine height and the fact that they hight is pretty even over the full length makes learning the proper "claw" grip and mastering the "tip off the board" cutting easier and safer than with a narrower blade with less / less consistent room for knuckle contact (esp when working with the tip).
The shape is great for scooping and scraping the board (that's actually one of my favorite uses for the flat nose), and it's safer because when laid at an angle, most of the blade is in close enough contact w/ the board that the edge will not be in contact.
They're cheap: tojiro and a few others have 180mm's that start around $60 (and with a little TLC to smooth out the rough bevel / ease the spine and choil you have a really nice knife that's 85-90% as good as a knife costing 300% more) ... so even if they give up / decide that they hate it; it's not too much to write off as a failed experiment.
Sorry for the rant, but I think that nakiri's are one of the most misunderstood / unloved knives, esp among our fellow knuts, and it kinda ticks me off sometimes. I said that I think they make great intro or novice knives, but they are also a tool that requires some real work to full understand / master and I think it's sad that few people seem to understand them. Yeah they arnt' a gyuto, but that's the whole point or (bad pun warning) lack thereof.
Id love to see some of these anti-nakri gyuto snobs post a video showing some typical veg-based tasks that a 210mm gyuto or even 240mm supposedly does SOOOO much better than a nakiri. I will wager a delicious bottle of bourbon that I could do the exact same thing as well or better and in the same amount of time or less with a nakiri.