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Hi Amelia, the AVX is easy to use once you become familiar with it. Starting from basics:
Use a compass to find South and roughly line up the RA axis. Then you can do the Auto Two Star alignment. A planisphere is all you need to be able to find the brightest stars.
Once you're familiar with basic setup, alignment and go-to functions of the mount you can move on to learning the All Star Polar Alignment as outlined in the manual.
ASPA only takes a minute or two once you've learned how to do it: after aligning the mount, select ALIGN, then POLAR ALIGN then follow the prompts. You point the mount/scope at a known star then the mount moves away from the star, then you move the star back into the eyepiece using the mechanical adjustments on the mount. Now you're polar aligned and you need to do another basic alignment (because the mount was moved).
Once you've become proficient with that you can consider buying a StarSense which largely automates the alignment process. You still need to do the ASPA though.
ASPA is only needed for imaging or if you particularly want the mount to track objects visually for long periods without adjustments. Go-To's work just fine without precise polar alignment.
You do need to lock the axes very firmly on the AVX and have the scope reasonably balanced to make sure that there won't be any slipping on either axis.
I started imaging last winter with my AVX with StarSense and a short focal length refractor and it's been quite easy to achieve good tracking (with an MGEN autoguider). You can start off taking 30 sec exposures and move to guiding in the future.
Take everything one step at a time to avoid becoming discouraged.
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