no pain, no gain?

Just thinking about Dron's words (p2):

If people wish to learn, then it is usually the case that they wish to learn well, or at least efficiently, with as little anxiety and effort as possible

1. 'they wish to learn well' - need to qualify 'well'
2. 'as little anxiety and effort as possible' - hmmm - yet in the Scripting CSCL book it was observed that learning was facilitated by designers of educational events putting learning obstacles in the way of learners.
Thus there is a tension between 'learn well' and 'learn easy'. By providing all the supports and allowances for different learning styles, etc. that we do, making things 'visual' or 'interactive', is this actually helping learners or merely helping them to depend less on their own intellectual development and more on the scaffolding.