About 10% of the people who tried to talk to their representative in any way reported a face to face meeting.

Willing to take 10:1 odds that thefolks at the congressional sit-in all attempted to make appointments with their respective congresscritters as well.

That it’s trivial to find numbers of people who have gone and spoken to their representative, and instruction sheets for how to have an effective meeting from various groups tells me that access isn’t the issue.

As someone who has gone through the process, it is not trivial at all. I've campaigned for Congressmen who have given me maybe an hour of their time over the course of months, and never individually.

I've been talked at by Congressmen routinely. I've had maybe two actual interactions with my own congressman (both adversarial). I've been stood up by a Congressman at some office hours event more than a dozen times. The best shot you have at directly engaging with a Congressman - in my own experience - is by protesting them at one of their fundraising events. Actual civilian lobbying is borderline impossible. So much so that I've been solicited by professional lobbyists more times than I've been in conversation with a sitting representative.

It is truly asinine to suggest lay voters can speak with their reps through anything that isn't a megaphone or a daisy chain of professional solicitors.