I don't see how it is tempting..... I takes (for me) like 4 months to learn them all, but right now two weeks after learning intuitive, my F2L (including cross) if I go well and look ahead are -20
So, if I understand you correctly, it was worth it for you. I say tempting because studying algorithms seems to be an integral, and very important part of understanding the cube; and, the algorithms that have been devised for F2L, where so much time can be consumed, deserve close scrutiny. I would guess that the four months that you spent learning the set of F2L algorithms that you did gives you very special knowledge of the cube.