To get all the bells and whistles done oneself, yes, it is time and learning.
Using Emacs with no bells and whistles just for writing is very enjoyable too, though! That's how I started. Within an hour or two I'd removed any visual clutter from the screen, and put on some dark theme (just clicking around the menu bar).
M-x help-with-tutorial (which came up when I first ran it, and I said oh, what's that), and that was me gone!
For weeks and weeks all I did was pump out text files with no formatting, being amazed that I could jump forward and backwards over words, sentences, and lines. It was an absolute joy, with a warm feeling of clarity and clean-ness to it.
Using Emacs with no bells and whistles just for writing is very enjoyable too, though! That's how I started. Within an hour or two I'd removed any visual clutter from the screen, and put on some dark theme (just clicking around the menu bar).
M-x help-with-tutorial (which came up when I first ran it, and I said oh, what's that), and that was me gone!
For weeks and weeks all I did was pump out text files with no formatting, being amazed that I could jump forward and backwards over words, sentences, and lines. It was an absolute joy, with a warm feeling of clarity and clean-ness to it.