RE: longbows
If you are committed and diligent and don't expect shortcuts, there is no reason you can't more or less master traditional tackle, whether a longbow, flatbow, recurve or Asiatic in as little as 150-200 hours of practice.
That said, there is really no reason for you to start with a compound. There's no doubt they are exceedlingly popular but there is also little doubt they are temperamental to tune, mechanically complex, expensive and heavy to carry.
For thousands of years and hundreds of generations we got by without them. You can too.
Whatever's wrong ain't the bow and whatever's right is the archer.