Absolutely if you want to write a plugin that interacts with the editor then the learning curve is much higher than it was before Gutenberg. Previously I could look at the code of other plugins to figure out how to add an icon to the editor toolbar, for instance. Learning through reading the code is harder now because the code has gone through a build process.

ACF, Meta Box and other plugins have shown that it is possible to support creating Gutenberg blocks using PHP. If we want to reduce the barrier to entry that would be a good place to start. Any reason why that isn't supported in core?

By the way, congrats on being able to create your first block in a few hours. I believe that is exceptional, not normal. I've seen several professional theme developers say they studied hard for about a week before making their first block, although perhaps you and they were approaching it differently.