In reply to Scott Bowler.

100% ack.

Its gonna turn into something like getting into Typo3 development - you first have to learn a complete new language (Typoscript) before you can get down to the actual nitty-gritty.

NOT AT ALL beginner-friendly. Maybe WP should replace its original motto of "Code Is Poetry" with "Code is Bureaucracy", starting with 5.0 ^_^

cu, w0lf.