For nerds

You could say that from an advanced perspective, but as a beginner I've always struggled with d4 because of the many possible lines possible. And also I don't disagree that e4 has as much theory but beginners don't tend to play these 'advanced' openings and avoid openings like Vienna and Ruy Lopez and usually stick with the Italian. Again, this is just my perspective, but it can vary depending upon rating. In my rating range (1000), I feel that this is the main reason.

I just can't imagine how you could see that. For e4 there are at least as many, and quite probably more possible lines. Just at move 1, and even if we disregard oddities like b6 or Nc6, there's still e5, e6, d5, d6, c5, c6, Nf6 and g6, these are all theory and often played.

Did you read the later part of what I said? - "And also I don't disagree that e4 has as much theory but beginners don't tend to play these 'advanced' openings and avoid openings like Vienna and Ruy Lopez and usually stick with the Italian."

And again, out of the 6 options you have shown, beginners don't go for the fianchetto openings and mostly go for the central pawn openings.

If you open 1 e4, then you will see most 1...e5 and to a lesser extent 1...c5.
If you open 1 d4, then you will see most 1...d5 and to a lesser extent 1...Nf6.

Um... interesting notation.

Real queen's gambit notation looks like this.

1. d4 d5

2. c4

No, most beginners, for some reason, go for a setup that looks like this.

Where they're down a rook for a bishop and have doubled pawns.

Hii