Is there a reason why making a spring app and learning hands-on is not feasible?

I know I sometimes get demotivated mid-way, but that also tells me it might not be worth the investment

Spring is reasonably easy to learn. The hard part is knowing where beans are defined, because Spring doesn't make that easy at all. Anyone and anything can define new beans in any library you pull.

I still don't see why AI would be mandatory. It's helpful, yes, but not mandatory.