I was never one to read the manual. I liked just jumping in and seeing where that takes me. Often, it takes me to a place that I’d probably have saved time IF I read the manual. I think its the transition to getting older. As you age, you’re gaining wisdom, and within that comes the idea of reading the manual. Or at least fixing things to completion. I had to rip out a camera from my audio chain, because it started to produce a hum. It didn’t USE to, but it does now. And now that I’ve done that, I want the chains to be CORRECT, which meant I also had to check audio input and outputs and routing, and found out that there was also a hum and crackle produced by some software I was using. Go figure. Maybe if I had read the manual or just double checked, I could have saved some time. Or not, I guess, since I still prefer to jump in and see where it takes me.
In essence, there’s not really a point. Just figure out which method and road you prefer, and that’s going to likely be your adventure. That’s about it.