R's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: A large, active user base that provides packages for the community to use.
- quality varies from pacakge to package, so does style
- new things keep coming (so you need to revisit your choices)
If you are new to R, you will learn faster and be happier if you can learn a few flexible tools very well than if you run with the first thing you google that gets today's job done.
If you are teaching, your students will become more proficient more quickly (and with less stress) if you follow a Less Volume, More Creatiity approach.