I'm fairly used to playing games (including but not limited to the first Crash Bandicoot on release), but I might get confused by that location as well.
At least from the still image, the background is so busy and drowns out the pipe at the bottom. Like, I see it, but if you hadn't pointed it out I probably wouldn't have noticed it. Especially if it's a static image and a stressful level.
I would certainly have found my way when actually playing, but for someone who isn't used to gaming you're more likely to "just keep going", in this case from left to right, than look for where you're supposed to go.
Having that open pipe design background, in the same colour scheme, and bigger than the pipe you're supposed to be looking for, is not well designed to help people navigate quickly and easily if they aren't focused on it or know what to focus on.
