[BeetleB]

>For whatever reason I just can't get my head around pandas, despite multiple attempts.

You need to work with pandas consistently for a month or two, and then it'll all click.

pandas is not complex, nor deep. It is, however, very broad. Most of the time it is "Here's what I need to do. I'm sure there's an API or two in pandas that will let me do this," and then you spend an hour or so looking at the documentation to find those APIs.

My first month or two was: "I need to do this. Let me Google". Pretty much every time someone had asked that same question on SO.

If you stick to it for 2 months, you'll eventually "learn" all the routine tasks and Googling stuff becomes only occasional.

And it does help if you're familiar with NumPy.