Can I throw a rant/ complain, and the ask for help advise? I hope so

BACKGROUND…
I am learning to code basically online, fron sources like Freecodecamp, udemy, w3schools… at this point I can say I create a good old style website using plain html, javascript, css… with a help from bootstrap it makes it easier to create and modify a site and deploy it in plain html…

STARTING THE RANT
quickly after learning the simple code basis… I learn about REACT… How I could create modules from pieces of code, store them and update them… cool stuff that would save time… downsize??? React is worthless for SEO, if I needed SEO I needed to learn webpack and that was so much work… was REACT modules worth it if you have so much work to do for SEO?

Later on I learn about Nextjs… better than React for SEO, but you got to be a bit careful on how you code it because it doesnt use a DOM… overall not terrible…

THE DATABASES…
learning to manage databases I find it a bit silly to a point… because given my little experience I have to invest time to learn a private company code system with resources that I cant find… I am frustrated with MONGODB Atlas becuse I dont know how to do the things, information doesnt seem easy to find, and their documents seem to be outdated…

CURRENT PROBLEM / ADVISE?
Rihgt now I am trying to pull data using nextjs getStaticProps from my MONGODB database… well… it isnt working… I must pull data directly from getStaticProps and feed it to the page … the implementation of connecting to the database and pulling data from getStaticProps has been frustrating… fair to say that the course I took from nextjs they usually fetch data using a direct link website… well… another frustration is that i havent found the way on how to get that website link with my data from mongodb… so, what would be the best way to pull data? Can mongodb be used in getStaticProps?

RETHINKING DATABASES
given my frustration, and given that technology or the hype of the moment isnt perfect… it would be a good idea of not investing much time on learning an x company method if that would tie me to their system and wont offer real time saving features… maybe I need to learn how to create my own APIs and do whatever CRUD operation might be needed in javascript… the people from nextjs in their course use for example airtable, and the use of airtable is limited plus you still gotta invest time to learn their system… is it really worth my time?..

ANYWAY…
at this point if i cant figure how to pull data from mongodb in getstaticprops, then I am just gonna hard code the data, converting 900 items of an excell sheet into html or json takes seconds… for my current needs i dont need any CRUD operation… in the future maybe having control and learning about creating my own api could free me from the frustration of dealing and learning the system of databases companies…

Nextjs as not perfect is still a step forward to simply coding… I dont think coding should be the learning of the system of X company, but implementing the basics of common language to get things done…

Well, while this is the “normal” way of online self-taught programmers, and my story is similar frustration-wise and reading these types of topics feels as if I wrote it from some other universe, lol.

Part of it comes from the fact that these Udemy courses sell you on the fact “This is the ONLY ONE course you would need to become a senior Full-Stack Developer!”, and they forget to add: “and make a fool of yourself on a potential interview”
The wrong things in those 30hrs-mini-courses (yeah i call them mini now) is that they dont teach you JS nor React basics, yet you are “becoming” a senior with this follow-me-as-I-type-course.

So once hand-holding / honeymoon stops, you gotta do whats called “jump off a cliff” (not literally) into the desert of despair, where you don’t understand a technology, so you can’t search the right solution to a problem, but you need that solution to understand the technology … its a Catch 22

So instead, what I did was the mistake of “one more” of these “the only Udemy course you gonna need” again and again until I had to go into the desert of despair (which I think I still am at) and put some 14-24hrs a day (yeah I sometimes skip a sleep) to learn the basics and understand the technology.

Going back to the technical part of your question, I would put it simply: the neglecting part of SEO using React (or the downsides of React) is worth the upsides of using React’s functionality to build our websites, and do whatever is needed for SEO.

The last thing I wanna mention is that perhaps the better path to becoming a developer is okay to learn the basics at home, but go and apply for intern (unpaid) job, and learn faster by the help of someone else pointing out to what you are doing wrong.
The thing is your senior colleague’s method of doing things is NOT the only way of doing it, so you must still google it when you go back at home, see other’s best practices and make up your own logic of doing it.
Then its when you’ll truly understand a technology - when you can do it your own way yet following best practices so that the code is readable by other developers. After many such experiences you’ll be ready to get a job where you’ll be paid…, be paid to google the right solution to a problem.
After all that’s what the job of a developer is to google the most accurate solution to a given problem.

Ah, so, to end, since we are “self-made online taught developers” (huh) I would suggest whenever you are stuck - go back to the basics - before building the BIG thing in your project, instead do the little one, just split the big problem to pieces.

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What drives people to learn to code?

For me is not about getting a job coding, but doing what I want to do for myself, doing my own projects.

For now, I think I am going to just do a hard coded database right on the page rather than using a 3rd party database… I am really frustrated on trying to find information… and then… the technology might not be that great after all, it is less problems just to hard code it.

I am interested in later on learning API’s… but I’ll try to stay away from the shinny new thing that might end up giving me more work at the end…

For real… who wants to learn Webpack, airtable, or all the paid features from MongoDB Atlas? … that is a bit of money, and a lot of time …

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