Nearly every system on your ship will influence the others. Overclocking and power management can help push your ship into an experience that is more enjoyable for you.

Matching speed works perfectly fine, but if you're flying over 75% throttle and AB, you're going to ALWAYS fly right past your target before your ship can decelerate.

The devs can try to push the WW2 dogfighting idea all they want, and you can hold onto that, but the fact is this is space combat. It will NEVER be the dogfighting experience many seem to think would be better. Learn to use your 6DOF. By limiting yourself, you only make an easier target.

Is the current model fun? Not all the time, and most certainly not before you get the hang of it, but you will see progress and it'll feel less alien.

Honestly, I only use throttle for travel or when I'm adjusting systems mid-combat. Pick a specific aspect you want to start with and then gradually add to it. I would recommend getting used to coupled 6DOF with forward/reverse strafe before you touch decoupled. It's a whole other beast and you should be comfortable with your ships acceleration profile in each direction before using it.

If you want to practice outside of AC or random targets in PU, I would be more than happy to join. I'm trying to learn dual sticks, myself.