The usual approach of teaching category theory is motivated where examples motivate the categorical gadgets, I think the unmotivated alternative (to create intuition for category theory as a formalist game) has not been explored
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US4Zr1WKD-8&list=PLCTMeyjMKR...
As others have stated trying to learn this abstractly first, before developing a concrete mathematical foundation, simply didn't work. I understood what the subject purported to do. I understood why I wanted to have a birds-eye view of subjects to come. The trouble is that the concepts didn't have enough to latch onto in my brain. I found myself frantically looking for examples in various subjects. In the end I realized my time was better spent in the weeds.