Maybe using LyX's basic functionality has a shallower learning curve than LaTeX, but to use it effectively and completely I find you need to know all about LaTe

Maybe using LyX's basic functionality has a shallower learning curve than LaTeX, but to use it effectively and completely I find you need to know all about LaTeX anyway, so by definition you actually need more knowledge. I think a lot of people go through a similar process to you, learning LyX first and then finding they can do more when they switch to LaTeX. I suspect if they returned to LyX some time later they'd find they still benefit from editing the vast majority of their document in the graphical view, while also being able to break out into raw LaTeX for the few features that LyX doesn't support. I was lucky enough to do it the opposite way round to you: I learned LaTeX first and typeset a few documents in it (including an undergraduate thesis) before coming across LaTeX, and that's how I'd recommend others learn it (well, maybe without typesetting a whole thesis in LaTeX!). I found the increase in productivity was literally a factor of three: I was writing up notes for a course in LaTeX and found they took roughly 9 hours for each 3 hour lecture, whereas when I switched to LyX I could write up each lecture in 3 hours. Ultimately I wrote my PhD thesis in LyX, and that took many months so I shudder to think what would've happened if I had had to use LaTeX!