Hard ware wallets are too expensive and the setup process can be quite tedious for newbies.
If you think the process of setting up a hardware wallet is too complicated for newbies, then a paper wallet is a very poor alternative suggestion. It is significantly harder to generate a paper wallet in a secure manner than it is to set up a hardware wallet, and it is significantly easier to mess up when generating or using a paper wallet and end up losing all your coins.
If he says buying a hardware wallet is too expensive for him, replying it's easier and safer to create a wallet from a hardware wallet won't help him unfortunately. If there is no solution for poor people, it's sad and it's a big fail for Bitcoin because it was supposed to help unbanked ones IIRC, and some poor countries like Salvador want to use it as an official currency.