EVE New Citizens Q&A

That really depends on what you want to do.

The only thing mostly out is solo PvP, that's something where you want more skills. (But then, I remember losing a ship to a 2 week old Tristan pilot, mostly because I completely underestimated him - T2 drones were really unexpected. Although that almost certainly was not a new player, just a new pilot, specifically trained from day one to fly that Tristan and look innocent.)

Anything else is up for grabs. You can definitely be useful in group PvP. Everyone loves a hero tackle and that takes less than a few hours of training.

Defensive plexing only needs game knowledge, no skill points.
Offensive plexing requires more skill points to defeat the NPCs, but it's not a long train either.

For solo actions - yes. You will hardly eve scratch those pirates, who came into your PLEX in faction frigates to fight your specific ship. If you choose another specific ship - they will also take another faction ship. Cause they will see what you have on D-Scan.

Team work depends on team, of cause. And your ability to understand names of destinations, so you can follow the fleet. Be ready to hear german or russian fleet comanders speaking english in their own way. It will " be incredibly frustrating" to find yourself alone 2-3 jumps from the fleet in a matter of minute.

Why not jump in with your main?

There are good corporations that will teach you about the lowsec lifestyle and, assuming you are not there to warp core stab farm, have a lot of fun with them learning solo/small gang pvp.

I only use one account, and had no alts with SP. I used 1 PLEX for an alt to get trade skills and just had the items freighted from Jita to my lowsec home through a corp service.

I am not going to pretend that FW is perfect either, but I cannot think of a much better way to really learn small ship pvp.