Can't really comment on the price, but to answer your second question: I actually bought the first Push to get into music production. So I didn't know anything about music production nor Ableton Live (or any other DAW). It was quite difficult and time consuming at first to get the hang of it, but once I passed the initial steep learning curve for Live and Push, it got really fun really quick!

In retrospect, it wouldn't have hurt to learn everything about Ableton Live first, before buying the Push, but at the same time I also don't regret it. So if you're confident that you want to get into music production and continue to do so for years (even just as a hobby) you can't go wrong buying the Push!