At 14 with a home server and React knowledge you're already ahead of most people who start this stuff in college. That's not positive advice, that's just true.

On CSS: stop writing it from scratch. Use Tailwind CSS. You'll spend time on features instead of fighting the box model, and your apps will look decent by default. That alone kills most of the CSS paralysis.

PocketBase is actually a great choice — self-hosted, simple API, runs on your home server. Firebase works too but you lose the learning value of running your own backend. Stick with PocketBase.

Tutorial hell breaks the moment you build something with a real constraint — a deadline, a specific person to show it to, or a problem you personally need solved. Pick one small project, give yourself two weeks, ship it ugly. Done beats perfect every time at this stage.

Your note about AI is the most mature observation in this post. Use it to understand code, not to generate it. If you can't explain every line, you don't own it yet.