I'm a hobbyist when it comes to RPi/Arduino projects, and I always feel powerless when I do projects like these. There's always a better way to do what you're currently doing, without too much extra costs, and there's no way I could have found out on my own.
It happens almost the opposite when building software (maybe because that's what I do for a living?), but it makes me think that maybe there's a different workflow that I'm not aware of when working on HW projects.
Don't worry too much about it, there's merit in doing any of the levels anyway. Doing it the way from the article is much closer to the metal than using ws2812 or neopixels. These programmable rgb LEDs are quite complicated, they contain a shift register, three DACs and three LEDs, but they're super convenient if you want to place lights anywhere.
I suggest you look at esp8266 and micropython, if you want to get a quick start. You can get them rather cheaply on aliexpress, along with ws2812 strips. Or you get them from adafruit, which is much quicker but more expensive. Adafruit calls the LEDs neopixel, so Google for that too.
And of course you can message me or anyone here at any time. Doesn't mean we're experts, but we'll help as much as we can.
It happens almost the opposite when building software (maybe because that's what I do for a living?), but it makes me think that maybe there's a different workflow that I'm not aware of when working on HW projects.