I'm sorry I have no solutions and can only offer my experience, hopefully the additional data is enough.
I attempted to start modding a few months ago and failed. I had never modded before trying to dive in. I wanted to mod angled gears (fools errand for a beginner) which when I asked the community where to start on that I learned that it would be a code mod. I'd done a tiny amount of webdev and a class of coding in college so I knew a little code but wasn't professional coder. I read the wiki pages and learned that there was an assertion that you need to "climb the ladder" (which I accepted) and make some content mods before you can make a code mod. I started having problems when I went looking for definitive path to follow and learn the concepts and train myself up to making the mod that I actually wanted to make.
Of all the suggestions I've seen I feel like a series of guides made up of a finished mod that you modify to get the correct end result sounds like it would have been the most helpful. I'll second what @HugoCortell said
'When you're following a guide that goes "do this, then that, then that, etc etc etc", you're one mistake away from something that does not run, and with no idea (since you're a novice) of what's gone wrong, so you need to re-check everything and hope for the best.'
This was exactly my experience, there was far too much that I could do wrong. And not very much structure. And for good measure it was difficult trying to find community, ask for assistance, better understand the process and then get a link to `https://github.com/search?q=org%3Aanegostudios angledgear&type=code` with the suggestion to just read that. To their credit one of the best resources I received in my search was this Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7ZT38WqA also shown to me by the same person.
I hate to give the impression that I'm a lazy person and I can't / won't do the work. The experience just felt like smashing my head into brick wall. I'd really like to see some movement on this problem sooner than later, I get that the VS Team has a ton on their plates and that's why I second @captanredbeard's suggestion to leverage our wonderful community more. Me specifically I'd volunteer to format "manually format the entire page" if I could be given the correct content by someone who actually knows what they are talking about. It wouldn't even be a waste of time; medieval scribes would often learn texts by coping those texts.
I hope this is useful somehow, sorry if it isn't. I really love the game and I have hundreds of hours in it. I'm really hoping I can get the point where I can enhance this experience for myself and others soon.
