Game knowledge vs tank grind

Has grinding tanks become to “easy” ? I know that WoT is a grind type of game but with the adding of “easier” to get blueprints, more and more premiums, easier to get exp bonuses etc grinding tank lines can happen fairly quickly. I notice more and more players (on here, on other forums, in clans, etc) asking for and needing advice on game play when they are trying to learn with a tier 7-9 tank. So this has made me have several questions about grinding tanks vs game knowledge. Is grinding tanks too easy? What’s the best tier tanks to actually learn with? Is a tier 4 tank a good learner tank when “real” game play actually starts around tier 6? I know that when I started playing this game again a few years back I made the mistake of thinking a higher tier/premium/OP would make me better. It didn’t. It probably hurt my game learning. I got the advice to go play a kv-1 till I learned game knowledge (I wanted to play heavies so that was the advice I was given). It helped my overall gameplay far more then beating my head against the wall trying to learn in a tier 8 OP premium. Just wondering what you guys thoughts/advice/experience etc is about this.