I too had a hard time with Gentoo install. After several times of installing and re-installing you will find ways to gt the system up to where you want it. I love the challenge that's why I don't give up on Gentoo.

IF you really want Gentoo based system but don't want the compile process then take a look at SABAYON. Sabayon is the binary build of Gentoo so you don't ave to compile everything. I run Sabayon on my Laptop and Gentoo on my desktop.

But will you learn anything other than Gentoo? Will anything you learn be transferable to anything other than Gentoo?

For example, where else are you going to use "emerge -uDN @world" ?

Asking if your knowledge about the package manager for distroA is going to be of use in any other distroB that's not a derivative of distroA is a bit irrelevant, if I may say.

Knowledge about Gentoo's package manager will be useful in Gentoo derivatives.

Knowledge about Debian's package manager will be useful in Debian derivatives (such as Ubuntu).

The list can go on...

As for the rest, yes, definitely, accumulated knowledge about how tools are configured, how shell scripts work, how to use the command line, how the X server pieces fit in the system, how init systems work, how kernel configuration works, how to modify and tune it, how to run a server without a point and click UI, how to enable or disable pieces in your apache, how to manage all of that using ssh instead of -again- an X-based point and click UI, etc. etc. etc., will be useful for you if you intend to do anything besides internet, mail and gaming.

As pointed out by i92guboj, as far as "emerge" goes, it's just the Gentoo package manager... so probably not that "transferable". As to the rest of the whole "Gentoo" experience, it will INDEED bestow knowledge that is EASILY transferable to a plethora of other contexts. The installation alone will enlighten one on things such as Kernel customization, file system support, compilation tool chains, procfs, boot loaders, and many more interesting subjects.

A more adequate question, I think, is: what aspects of "Linux" do you want to learn about? Maybe you're just interested in knowing a little more about how the diferent components of what make up a Linux distro are installed and come together (compositor, D.E., init system, etc.), but don't really care about how they are compiled (CFLAGS, etc.). In this case, Gentoo may represent too much of a "deep dive"... maybe something along the lines of Arch Linux would be more appropriate.

In any event, even if you don't install and/or use it, perusing the Gentoo installation documentation alone will behoove anyone wanting to increase their understanding of Linux.