> I really don't get how watching a PM-type struggle with emacs for two hours at a spell is compelling or instructive. I can struggle with emacs all by myself.

Because it's a lot scarier to struggle alone. Plus as his videos progress and his knowledge progresses he frequently teaches you things that come up and practice a lot as a matter of course.

It's kind of like when you start programming you have to build up your endurance for feeling like you're always in a dark room feeling around... and you convince yourself that it won't be like this one day.

A decade or two later you realize you've become accustomed the darkness...