It's nice to hear that the author would go to Mass regardless of its "form".  I'm not surprised he found the EF difficult; after all, we're most comfortable with what we're used to.  I think I probably had the same reaction the first few times I went to the EF, having been deprived of it for the first 40+ years of my life.

These days I struggle to attend the Novus Ordo with my family and go to the EF whenever possible.  There are 2 main reasons:  (1) the Novus Ordo (and its calendar) are inferior, and (2) Pope Paul VI had absolutely no right to presume to change the Mass and impose his liturgy upon the church--that was an act of sheer Ultramontane arrogance:  the "spirit of Vatican One".

But wouldn't it be nice if we stopped trying to impose our own personal worship preferences on other Catholics?  Let parishes offer both the Tridentine Mass and the Bugnini-Montini ritual, and let people go where they will.  My bet is they'll go for the quickest option.