That’s more a community and presentation problem than a fragmentation problem. If people could agree on objective criteria for recommending Linux distros to newbies, it wouldn’t be so intimidating to them.

Nobody criticizes Ford or Toyota for having “too many options” when they sell cars because they present those options as complementary and people see the variety as a good thing. Linux distros are often presented as competing products, even though for most of them that’s not the case.