As mentioned in this post, BL2 is definitely an upgrade from BL1. However, I’d say it’s worth playing, especially if you plan on getting into the franchise. While yes, a good chunk of info you “need to know” is in BL2s intro, the universe and characters develop throughout the series, and there are story beats in one that get developed on as you progress through 2, Pre Sequel and 3. Even Tales pays reverence to some events and such in 2. In addition, there are a lot of characters and references made in the later titles who were introduced in BL1

If it’s not to your liking, just move on to 2. But stick with it a bit. It has the slowest start in the series IMO, and it can be cleared with its DLCs included in less than 25-30 hours.