My degree thesis was porting a particle engine framework from NeXTSTEP/OpenGL/Objective-C into Windows/OpenGL/C++ with MFC.
Yet that doesn't mean I don't care about newbies in 2021, specially when Khronos says OpenGL isn't going to move beyond version 4.6, thus everyone new in the field feels like Vulkan is what they should learn instead.
Vulkan isn't for newbies. Really, if you're new to 3D graphics then you're not Vulkan's target audience; pretending otherwise only results in pain. That's like complaining that a modern CPU's privileged instructions are too complicated for people new to assembly – yes, they are, and no, that's not a design flaw.
> Also Vulkan only exists because AMD was so kind to contribute Mantle as starting ground
That's maybe a point against Khronos, not against Vulkan.
> Really, in 21st century if you want to write portable 3D code just use a middleware engine, with plugins based backend.
Which is exactly what people should be doing. And those middleware engines can be written using Vulkan, because it is designed the way it is.