It has taken me several years to get used to using Unix systems through accumulated casual and professional usage. I used Git for a year or so before I really started to understand it.
Emacs is like that. You can read the Emacs tutorial in 20 minutes and use it like a fancy notepad, but true mastery of any complex and powerful system takes years.
(also when I found Textmate, that also kind of killed off my interest in Emacs)