Given your screen name, I hold your opinion in great esteem! And I agree - there’s something to be said for having to have the training wheels on. I clerked most of my law school “career” and it was invaluable.
A docent at Williamsburg once told us that Patrick Henry, with 4 kids, and failing as a farmer, and desperate for a job, took a copy of Blackstone and whatever the colonial statutes were home to study. He returned in six weeks to challenge the Bar - so quickly that Jefferson, who had been ‘reading’ for the law with John Wythe, and paying for the privilege, was irked, and the rest of the Bar were unwilling to allow him to even test. However, Patrick Henry passed the Bar at Williamsburg, and ended up giving his famous speech at the ripe age of 27.