I think you made the right decision.
I think I have tried and tested just about every kind of installation for Ubuntu that anybody can think of and in the end I prefer the speed and convenience that comes with simplicity.
Don't stop learning though, LUKS file system encryption is great on it's own and LVM is way cool too, it's just a big step when they're both combined and the operating system is already running inside them.
It's not too hard to make yourself a LUKS encrypted USB drive or a camera card for sensitive files. Here's a link about that: https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/create-a-partially-encrypted-external-drive/11140
LVM is a lot of fun to play around with if you have a collection of cheap USB drives or something like that, and the knowledge gained could be useful, especially if you ever get around to setting up your own server.
Good luck with your future gnu-linux endeavours.