Just like you, Duckee, when I was first introduced to Vue, I felt totally overwhelmed.  The tutorials at Geek at Play were literal life savers.

I had been dabbling in Bryce for a while, but when I started with Vue, I never looked back.  That is just my personal preference - nothing wrong with Bryce at all.

I briefly considered a lesser version, but when I took the plunge, I went with Vue Infinite.  You might qualify for Vue Infinite educational version  (the same as the full version) if you sign up for some Vue classes. That results in quite a price reduction.  Peggy Walters teaches Vue classes over at lvsonline.com (that's how I qualifed at that time for the educational version).

I am strictly a hobbyist and don't have an artistic bone in my body, but I figured something that gives me so much joy is worth the "little" extra expense. That's how I justify the cost of Vue now that I no longer qualify for the educational license.

With Vue Infinite, you get plenty of content, and I wouldn't even give a thought to purchasing additional content until you have gone through the GaP tutorials and get a feel for what you might lack.

I absolutely love this program, want to encourage you as much as I can - don't feel overwhelmed/take it in baby steps - and I can almost guarantee you will not regret the purchase once you get started.

Finally, for someone like me lacking artistic talent, the availability of tons and tons of online tutorials in Vue (notably gaP) is invaluable.