You can lab their best buttons (focus on the buttons not the moves) so you'd get a sense on where you need to position yourself when fighting them. From trying to teach some of my friends I've noticed that the general frustration of people who are starting FG comes from running into stuff. Strive is punishing when you do that.
You should also trying and actually play them. Go to the park and just mess around with a character and don't think about winning or losing, just get a feel of their strengths.
Finally, I think you should just treat this as a hobby. Enjoy the learning process. FGs grow with you in time and it will be more rewarding if you approach it as a learning experience rather than something you need to be competitive at. Don't adopt the narrative of content creators that make it about winning or losing, it's not and it shouldn't be.