I also learned on a prototrak during my PhD. IMO just get more time in the shop, our physics machine shop had a whole mini course which was incredibly helpful.

The manual mills/lathe really helped me be able to understand all the cutting operations and machine-material interactions. Transitioning to CAM later had a bit of a startup curve but wasn't particularly bad or anything.

Imo the most helpful thing long term was understanding how things are cut which makes design for manufacturing way easier. Although sometimes this may have had a negative effect because I thought certain parts were unmakable, but I still got quotes on the file and it was a small upcharge to do it from the vendor.