Way way back I played the bassoon. I was not quick enough for smaller instruments. The wood used for the double reed made a huge difference. A wood even slightly too hard made it very difficult to modulate the embachure to anything other than fully open or clamped fully closed. Fully open or fully closed gets you no sound at all; it needs to be modulated just so. Also, the musculature would be fatigued very quickly in that case.
Once you know the Boehm system (the way holes, keys and pads are linked together to select the notes) you ought to be able to get a tune out of any woodwind instrument. It might not sound
good, it might be in the wrong key, and you'll likely be stuck in the instrument's first register but it ought to be a recognisable tune. Flutes are notoriously difficult for the beginner to even get a note out of, you have to blow across the embouchure hole in
just the right way to even make a sound. So there's quite a tradition of us fluters challenging other woodwind players "
You get three blind mice out of my flute, I'll get three blind mice out of your clarinet. However fails is buying the drinks.". The upshot of this is almost invariably the flautist winning.
As a fluter I've usually succeeded in at least getting a recognisable tune out of most woodwind instruments first try. However, the first instrument to completely beat me was my (redheaded) girlfriend's oboe (also a double reed instrument like the bassoon). With much persistence I could get a single note, briefly, but the concentration required just to do that meant that a tune was right out of the question. Double reed instruments are
hard. From a flautist's perspective harder to play than a flute, but coming at one or the other for the first time I think the flute might just have the edge in "
hardest to get a note out of" but it's difficult to tell.