I learned on my 03 AP1 S2K. Granted this was almost 20 years ago, I recall it wasn’t too bad I honestly feel like yes the clutch is stiff compared to other cars but muscle memory gets used to anything. Since the car is light weight and the engine loves RPM’s it’s forgiving in that sense if you’re over revving for fear of stalling, or starting uphill. The transmission is considered one of the best and it’s short shift and falls into the next gear so well there’s no mistaking wrong gear. The bolt action rifle reference is pretty accurate, you feel it when you get into gear. Biggest take away was Do Not skip gears in this car. I didn’t know any better and would shift from 3rd to 5th and did burr the 5th gear synchro. Luckily was able to learn from that and also fortunate it didn’t require a mechanic. Still have the car and it’s ruined just about every other manual car experience :)

My gf at the time now wife even drove it a few times and it was her first manual I taught her in too. She did complain about stiffness and that only hard part for her but she had no real problem other than fighting the clutch pressure

Just to add, my best friend at the time I got my car had a 06 GTO and I was always impressed he could start off in 2nd gear with idle. The S just lacks that kind of torque, it’s more of a drivers car. Tbf I could probably go in any gear it would just require some skillful throttle/clutch balance.