> Learning by oneself using books and youtube videos, probably never get there.

This assumption is disproven by the order-of-magnitude size difference between the bee supply catalog mailing lists and the sum total of association membership lists, bee magazine subscriber lists, and course sign-up sheets.

Many beekeepers who have started since 2010 do not belong to an association, do not subscribe to a magazine, and have learned ONLY from books, YouTube, Facebook, etc.  These people eschew online "forums", and rarely even use email. People are very busy.  Bee meetings held over Zoom have been a good way to attract this demographic to at least the education available in meeting presentations, as few have the time to attend meetings "in person".

Years before she met me, my wife was able to get her bees through their first two years before she took any classes, as she was in Manhattan, and the closest class at that time was a one-hour ride away on the Long Island Railroad from NYC.   

For the novice, the simplicity of having no contradictory information, and no staccato rattling off of the factoids around the latest ineffective "treatment" for varroa is a good thing, as it allows them to focus on what novices really should at first focus upon - learning to practice one's actions when doing "an inspection", and learning that this is a pleasant and peaceful activity, not a tense and fearful experience.

I am often asked to teach people "beekeeping" via personal tutoring while they impatiently stand on one foot, and I suggest the excellent "Backyard Beekeeper" books by Kim Flottum, backed up by reference to "The Beekeepers Handbook" by Diana Sammataro, and Alphonse Avitabile.   

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