I've tried everything from Notepad++ (and plugins), Sublime (and plugins), MacVim (and plugins), Atom, VS Code, to other heavyweight IDEs...
I'm not a lucky person, avoid games of luck, but consider one of my few lucky moments being grandfathered into Jetbrains's sub model at a steep discount.
The 2x2 is the Gold Standard of Pain: ubiquitous, plentiful, and no matter where it connects, it's knee-buckling (vs. say the 2x3s, which I find can be tolerable if it runs lengthwise along the outside lane of your foot.. you can kinda roll with it).
The 2x2 is the bedbug of toys: perfectly engineered for torment.
Without tremendously disagreeing with your admittedly exaggerated point, but to add flavor:
The learning of a skill or trade -- your skip to the exercises bit -- yes, teach a man to fish, etc. But to stare at, e.g., a polynomial for the first time ever in the exercises and be asked to "factor" it ... well, maybe your Gauss, but for others, it means going back in the chapter to read the axioms, lemma, the laws, examples -- that knowledge you apply to your own understanding, allowing you to learn.
Most people didn't fly to Juneau, on a strong hunch, buy a spray paint can, graffiti a local bridge with "This is the capital of Alaska" just so they confirmed or finally learned, by being arrested for vandalism that, in fact, Juneau is the capital of Alaska. We learn this fact from, e.g., reading about it.
Not all knowledge was derived through some form of the Scientific Method. To equally play provocative, I will posit, with no linked papers, most of what we know, to a person, is not from doing, but from some form of passive communication.
I don't get the comparison. This effort (by others' comments: a rearranging and editing of existing materials, with new illustrations?) with LOTR (a wholly original, although related, trilogy) gives me false from the areEqual() call.
There's a market. Fans will buy. Money is good. Some would say the repackaging is worth it. From an originality-perspective, others wouldn't -- still, more, considering its "timely" release.
If you are in that second camp, this is the very definition of a cash-grab.
That's a great theological question. Are all souls equal? Many religions say, " Yes," although something tells me if your seller-classmate was me, and you rejected other classmate's -- Aretha Franklin's -- offer, you are definitely in the red.