Yep you're going through the same sort of steps as me, sometimes it can be tempting to just rely on addons or even paid plugins etc. as shortcuts but those only really work to begin with until you have a solid grasp on the fundamentals like with everything. It's nice I guess to know I'm not the only one as I'm largely self-taught through tutorials etc. on this, same goes for programming and everything.
RE: Rigged and Running