On the contrary, I felt that understanding where x86 had come from helped me understand the reason why the registers were named what they were, why some instructions are longer than others, etc.

It's confusing as a beginner to encounter the "di" and "dx" registers, and to understand why the 8-bit version of "r13" is "r13b" but the 8-bit version of "rdx" is either "dh" or "dl".