Hello!
To be honest, I always write "fmap" instead of "map" in all my code. Sometimes I change the container I am using, and if I write "map", then I would have to change that "map" to "Something.map" or just "fmap". I know for sure that fmap is going to work in any Functor instance, so I don't have to deal with these things. In some situations (using functions from other classes as well), I only change the type signature of my functions, and the program keeps working as expected, which is awesome.
Therefore, I support the proposal.
By the way, how strong is the reason "it would be harder to learn"? Is it really that hard to use type classes? I don't think you need any deep math to understand how to work with type classes in Haskell. Even if they are called "Functor" or "Monad", you don't need to know about categories to use them. In fact, any Haskell student faces type classes in some point.
In the other hand, I remember that at the beginning somebody showed me that "+" sums integers. And eventually, it worked with floats too. He called this "overloading" and, presented in that way, type classes appeared like something natural in my mind. Can't the same thing been done in this case?
Best regards,
Daniel Díaz.