OOC, if you accept the premise that they would have been a good place to practice/understand this sort of thing, and got a chance to “do over,” would you still keep your distance?

Difficult to answer because I find some of the machinations so distressing. Perhaps it is the way I am wired.

Given the benefits of the knowledge that became apparent later in life, I might have preferred looking on from a distance to understand how things work.

But good question. You made me re-evaluated a choice I had made.