Awesome, glad to hear that, once I find something I’m passionate about, I usually stick with it for the long haul too, so I definitely see myself sticking with it. I’m very similar to you in that I’m a slow learner too but it makes me try harder and I get the hunger that much more so because of it. It happened when I switched careers and got into software, it took me a long time to build the skills I needed to get where I’m at now and I saw others pass me up with a what seemed like little to no effort, I made the change late in life too, s was gay can I say, I’m a late bloomer. 
I just try to stay focused on what I need to do and not worry about others. I’ve come to accept that I’m just a slower learner, nothing wrong with that at all.
I enjoy responsive play too, I personally think it’s harder than unresponsive play or at least it is for me at the beginner level, once you get past the picture tricks. I’ve hurt myself so much more doing responsive play. A lot of the string tricks are very difficult, you do one wrong move and it get just a tad bit of slack in your string and that yoyo is going to come back up hard. I’ve busted my hand and face so many times with the sage yoyo’s, sure, they are plastic but they are solid and will mess you up if you’re not careful, I bruised the palm of my hand just from catching the yoyo from my break away throws, they’ve got power man! Much more than they used to that’s for sure. I do think it’s important to get a solid foundation of both styles of play though.
I’ve never heard of 0A, what’s that? When I get better, way, way down the road, I would like to get into 5A, that style just appeals to me but honestly, it’s all really fascinating to me, it’s amazing what humans can do with things like this.
Someone linked the boomers club a while back for me, I need to look into it more to see what it’s all about. I don’t know how you get the time to do all that, being a father of two and all. Sounds like you keep yourself busy!
My brother has a son and a daughter the same age as yours kids, they keep him mighty busy. They are a cool family, they decided to homeschool them so they coukd foster their boys passion for skating, he’s definitely got what it takes to become one of the greats, he’s winning every competition that he gets in on, it’s pretty cool to watch him just kill it out there. I totally admire them for doing that for their kids, he got to meet Tony Hawk just a few weeks back (insanely nice guy). It’s funny though, my brother is older than me and he’s gotten back into skating too, so he’s out there at the skate parks having just as much fun as my nephew is. This kid is good at everything he puts his mind to, skating, bmx, soccer, you name it. He’s the one I got a yoyo for his 10th birthday, so I’m sure he’ll get great at that too. I’m actually going to see them tomorrow, I’m betting he’s going to show me how to throw properly, haha!
Not really an issue when you have adult money tho.