The general issue with MM is not necessarily that the minions are squishy. For new players trying a MM the biggest issue comes down to how a minion plays because the more erratic or melee centric the AI is, the more the player has to micromanage.
For example, someone would reccomend something along the lines of demon/dark for their first build or thugs. Issue is, these minions are more higher maitanence as both suffer the issue of trying to do everything and/or going in to face tanks the damage. Meanwhile, bots and mercs would be more newb freindly as they for the most part keep a distance.
The secondary problem with MM builds is that really when the cards are down, the secondaries are all hit and miss. Dark for example focuses on -to hit debuff, slows, sustain, and has an extra minion, but if the focus is on not getting hit FF does a far better of a job. However, FF doesn't add anything damage wise or heals. Every secondary comes with a trade off that really doesn't make them as great as they can be.
for new players, that translates to a very unfun experience while leveling. So, generally what would be a good start? distance focus AI minions, and just a simple secondary that focuses on sustain/support so nature, FF, time which works great for minions that stay close anyway, etc.