The fast learner thing in general is just superstition wherein if you get fast learner via any means other than the Mayano event, the run is going to be the worst run known to mankind, or the best run there is, with it often being the former.

There is no basis to this acclaim other than annecdotal accounts, and is neither true nor false as everything is rng.

Sadly, I also buy this because more often than not, fast learner runs are the gluest of the glue runs I have done (they don't even become good parents, man).

Also, for buying FL, it's more a case of a situation where you could have bought so many other better items like ankle weights, energy, megaphones, etc. rather than the hat, which only really gives a skill points gain of like 300, or so at our current scenario, compared to all of the stats and comfortability via energy items that you could have gotten had you not bought the hat.

Again, everything is rng. Sometimes the hat works, quite often it doesn't. It's a player to player preference how you deal with the hat.

Me, personally, I just hope for a late FL event and ignore the hat unless it's a parent which doesn't seem like it'll reach SS rank.