So much this.

This is like learning to read by first being asked to memorize all the rules of grammar and being quizzed on them, or being forced to learn all the ins and outs of book binding and ink production.

It's tedious, unproductive, miserable.

There's very little reward for a lot of complexity, and the complexity isn't the "stimulating" complexity of thinking through a problem; it's complexity in the sense of "I put the wrong bit in the wrong spot and everything is broken with very little guidance on why, and I don't have the mental model to even understand".

There's a perfectly fine time to learn assembly and machine instructions, and they're useful skills to have - but they really don't need to be present at the beginning of the learning process.

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My suggestion is to go even farther the other way. Start at the "I can make a real thing happen in the real world with code" stage as soon as possible.

Kids & adults both light up when they realize they can make motor turn, or an LED blink with code.

It's similarly "low level" in that there isn't much going on and they'll end up learning more about computers as machines, but much more satisfying and rewarding.