The interesting thing is that Lisp syntax editing mechanics scale. There are more “moves” that you can do with a Lisp, especially if most your code is also functional.

My approach: learn 2-4 navigational moves first for a while. Then add more nav and editing moves at a later point.

As with everything: deliberate practice leads to mastery. At some point it becomes apparent that the weird syntax is a feature that has huge upsides (another one being macros for example).