Good news, signal integrity guru Eric Bogatin has just released a guide book on circuit prototyping and PCB design fundamentals that can become an instant classic in the field:
https://us.artechhouse.com/Bogatins-Practical-Guide-to-Proto...
https://us.artechhouse.com/Bogatins-Practical-Guide-to-Proto...
CAD software for PCBs becomes a must when you need to deal with a lot of components in odd sizes/package formats, you need auto routing, being able to simulate resistance, impedance or clearance for high voltage sections of your PCB or when you actually need to get your PCB manufactured by a 3rd party that has specific requirements for file formats etc.
And even then some of these 3rd parties allow upload of graphical formats for the trace and solder mask layers.