Lessons
nThe book and software are too complex for non-developers nIt is better to learn the general language
than a particular development environment nThe standardized data format indeed has many advantages
Both the book and the software are too complex in my opinion and I will be looking for better materials.
Instead of learning the complex software, learn the language.  It would be easy to exhaust the capabilities of XSLT Desginer, for example, and then it will have to be coded.
This might not apply to things like validation or SOAP, which you need the computer to help you with, but do apply to the programming part.
I am impressed with XML and am happy using it.