I didn’t read either Practical Vim or the docs before becoming pretty proficient with Vim.
Some good blog posts and some videos did it for me. I had enough knowledge to make diving into the docs more meaningful.
Besides once you understand the language of Vim, it’s not hard to make strives.
Unfortunately, I had to put it down to read the 695,378 word Vim manual.
Or at least, the 33,807 word core essentials.
Approachability is... not Vim.
Especially when both the manual and Practical Vim to absorb "how to use it" are a such a necessity.