>>2041151
three examples off the top of my head:
hota shows how many enemies you can expect (for example 25-49 instead of just "lots"), it allows you to tell scholars and witches from witch huts "no" when they offer to teach you skills you don't want and it calculates your hero's specialty for you (pic related).
fundamentals of the game don't change between hota or vanilla so if you really want to learn on vanilla i see nothing wrong with it, but claiming that it's some kind of superior learning experience is just silly, you might as well tell someone he has to play restoration of erathia before he tries armagedon's blade or shadow of death