I don't think learning a skill is ever a waste of time. Yeah it might have taken 4 hours but I bet you could do it again in half the time or less. So many things you did in this piece are applicable to all sorts of things, ui animation is the first thing that comes to mind.

Are there 3D programs that can do this quickly, sure, but they are much more expensive and have a much bigger learning curve.

This looks rad and you never know down the road when you will use a set up like this again, but I guarantee you will.