Out of box / vanilla Emacs is pretty confusing doesn't include many popular packages - that is why some pre-made configs are very popular. On the other hand they might overwhelm you with features and very opinionated decisions.
If you want something close to what most users probably have setup and yet still close to vanilla you can give Emacs Prelude a try: https://prelude.emacsredux.com/en/latest/
I started with it, tried out the package selection, but then started a smaller config from scratch with what I liked from it.
I don't believe one should restrict oneself to a single editor, but rather follow a path of least resistance - Emacs is actually the path of least resistance when you want to have a custom editing experience.
Overall I use four editors Emacs, vi, notepad++ and VS Code. Emacs when doing Clojure or any other code so I can have something that is very convenient for me, vi and notepad++ on machines where I don't want to setup a config or where I do only simple text editing and VS Code where I would ocasionally need to install a plug-in, but I don't need to use it often.
If you want something close to what most users probably have setup and yet still close to vanilla you can give Emacs Prelude a try: https://prelude.emacsredux.com/en/latest/
I started with it, tried out the package selection, but then started a smaller config from scratch with what I liked from it.
Also good links: https://www.masteringemacs.org/reading-guide http://emacsrocks.com
I don't believe one should restrict oneself to a single editor, but rather follow a path of least resistance - Emacs is actually the path of least resistance when you want to have a custom editing experience.
Overall I use four editors Emacs, vi, notepad++ and VS Code. Emacs when doing Clojure or any other code so I can have something that is very convenient for me, vi and notepad++ on machines where I don't want to setup a config or where I do only simple text editing and VS Code where I would ocasionally need to install a plug-in, but I don't need to use it often.