I currently use Doom, but actually started out rolling my own config based around Evil, ended up close to 400 lines (though that's small compared to some). IMO better to start with as close to vanilla as possible so you get used to learning elisp. Doom is just so high quality and what I want that I take the shortcut and just use it. However, you still might want to do a lot of customization, and I think you'd be pretty lost as a new user. A sensible prelude is a great place to start.