I learned Emacs because I was interested in following the SICP and learning Scheme. The synergy between lispy languages and Emacs is just too great to look for another editor.

In that spirit, I'd say learning an editor with a steep learning curve just for the sake of learning isn't very effective - and that is probably the reason you end up frustrated. However, if you can find something else to learn within the editor - so that learning the editor comes as a side-effect - you'll progress much faster.

I believe this to be the reason I haven't been able to pick up Vim. Editors are tools - and if we see no use in the tool, we'll never get good at it.