There are definitely some great guided systems, I think there are generally trade offs between speed, versatility, skill requirements and cost with whatever system you end up with. Knowing what to go with will depend what you value most of those things. You are correct though that a guided system will generally be easier for someone just starting out.

Haha yes, despite working on my skills for almost 2 years I still feel like a beginner. Tbh though, even a poor job with a stone tends to be much better than no sharpening so i’d still recommend giving it a try! Imo it’s a must have skill if you want to keep any knife over a long period of time

If you want to enter a rabbit hole you can visit r/sharpening , the gist of that though is freehand stones, specifically the shapton pro 1000. Pretty much every pull-through type sharpener will eventually wreck your blade, or not work well enough once it is too dull