[_Algernon_]

Rule 1 of Anki, is make good flashcards, and review every day. That's all you need to get started. The defaults are good enough to get started. You don't need fancy image occlusion, add-ons, machine learning tuned custom parameters, etc.

"Make good flashcards" is indeed a difficult problem, but not one that is mitigated by a different tool.

"Review every day" is a question of habit formation, which is difficult, but also not a problem that a different tool will do better.

So the default Anki settings are good enough to get started, and allows itself to be customized as the user gets more familiar and better knows their need.

Without Anki import and export, a new tool simply seems to be a dead end to me, even if it slightly simplifies getting started.

[mbork_pl]

I understand all that (as a long time SuperMemo user). What was intimidating in Anki was the manual. Perhaps if I had tried to use it first there would be no problem...