My background is in prop and asset creation including rigging and animation, and Maya is my main package for development. I can’t really help you with your second question because I had formal training at a school, so my advice is to find a good teacher that can mentor you in real-time.
As for Maya vs Maya LT, Maya LT was a deal-breaker for me because its missing ‘Transfer Maps’ which is Maya’s texture baker. Without this feature, you cant bake normal maps from high to low poly models, generate AO with Maya, or any other texture baking.
So thats the only reason I dont use Maya LT; other than this, everything you need for character creation is included in Maya LT so my recommendation is to get it. The good news is that, as a beginner who isnt familiar with it either way, Maya LT + any texture baking software is still going to be cheaper than a full Maya subscription.