Thank you everyone for your suggestions, feedback and ideas.
I had not seen @deeplow’s tutorial and @unman’s “shaker.” The visual first-use tutorial would be very helpful. Integrating the “shaker” as well as other 3rd party scripts and salt stuff into Qubes would be very helpful. Maybe even a Qubes OS 4.2 that includes these suggestions as well as a < “create sys-vpn,” import VPN settings, put “username and password here” and “connect these Qubes to sys-vpn” > would be wonderful 
@alzer89 that wish list sounded too technical for me.
This said, if journalists and human rights defenders/workers are the target, someone needs to reach out to them as well as to non-profits supporting cyber security for other non-profits, or supporting FOSS, or advocating for privacy as a human right, or defending HRDs. This is not the mission of Qubes OS organization, but few others have the credibility and know how to do so. Insurgo and Nitropad could do that as support for civil society and an investment in social causes? Maybe Qubes OS laptops should be available via groups such as www.techsoup.org www.stifter-helfen.de www.stifter-helfen.at www.stifter-helfen.ch www.techsoupafrica.org/en ? These are some thoughts.
Thanks again. Grateful for the work behind Qubes OS and for the community here on this forum.