Nathan,
First, welcome aboard, I think you'll enjoy the ride!
Building a really basic slide show is not hard at all -- just drop the images on the timeline and that's it. Now, of course, you might not be satisfied with something that basic but at that point you tackle the various options and elements one step at a time. I suspect you'll be surprised at how easy it is to get very satisfying results--the fancy stuff is nice but it's all icing on the cake and not essential. In the end all that matters is whether you got the results you wanted.
The fundamental learning tool is to just
try stuff and see what happens. Oh, and combine that with "ask lots of specific questions." And, yes, at first it will take some investment of time and energy to get comfortable with the program. PSG isn't trivial to learn but it is, I think, well worth a little effort. And the support group here is really remarkable. In fact, this group is the reason I bought the software, seeing the enthusiasm and the help here convinced me.
Watching other people's shows is good, it will show you what's possible. But never let what you see discourage you -- we all started at newbies (some of us not that long ago!). Instead, take it as proof that others can get there and so can you.
Dick