Well, I argue 5 cards turn 1 was actually a good change for game balance. Turn 1 6 cards let people establish a strong field quite early on with the right setup, while 5 cards mitigates that extra advantage that people used to have.

Pendulums... Pendulums are weird. They're fun and easy to understand (Normal Pendulums gooooo), but they're definitely weird at times. Setting up the scale is inconsistent for most decks (things like Qlis and Yosenju aside), but they ARE fun to use once you do have everything ready.

Edit: Learning devPro/YGOPro is really easy. Everything's automated, too.