I tend to agree with you, but at the same time I find that tutorials and even side projects often don't move past the fairly basic usage of a language or framework. So even when I think I have learned something well, I end up having to work through a lot of unforeseen issues while working on a real project that end up being more time consuming than learning the basics. So in some ways I feel that the only way to really learn a new language or framework is to use it on a real project, because that's the only time the real challenges are going to present themselves.

I could be way off though, maybe I just need way more ambitious side projects.