I don’t regret anything. I’m on my path, and I’m enjoying it.
I have a laser-sharp focus on the root causes of issues. I see them more clearly than most, and I can identify which element of a system is causing the problem and how to fix it.
Complicated, “real-world-like” approaches rarely perform better than simple ones. And if they do, the difference usually isn’t big enough to justify the extra time spent.