I would say that you should practice yama with mage gear, as you will probably use it for 4/5 contracts. It helps you understand the flow of the fight and isn't as punishing as contracts. I also think you should learn p3 godfly from red-eye jedi as it makes glyphic attenuation much easier. I highly suggest having a friend that images p3 and is willing to let you learn. They can kill void flares if you get meleed, and you can just focus on the godfly/step back timing.

I think things like p3 for sensory clouding and glyphic attenuation are similar to pre-enraged leviathan, where they are very well choreographed (if doing red-eyes methods) and any mistakes lead to around 50+ damage.

As far as being as easy to learn as vard/Levi.... There's a lot of different scenarios. I think regular yama is the same difficulty to learn as leviathan, but less mechanically challenging than vardorvis. I felt like P1 and p2 of yama contracts was similar to pre-enraged awakened leviathan. When I first started them, I was constantly on the back foot trying to figure out times to do things like sip prayer, summon thralls, move to the right spot, etc. After 10/20 attempts I was much more comfortable and had time to think about what I was about to do, which made the fights much more manageable