I feel pretty confident that if you have the will to learn an instrument that you will find a way to play it. I also have met more than enough guitar players that sound amazing yet have never taken a formal lesson, some cannot provide any explanation of music theory. You know what, that is OK.

I have had a GuitarTricks membership for one year, and I too found that it did feel like work getting through Fundamentals1. I never thought I would enjoy playing an easy version of Simple Man but it did make sense in the context of the lesson material at the time. So I supplemented it with other training tools (Rocksmith, Ultimate Guitar Tab, youtube) to keep my interest up and would try out the other lessons available in the Styles sections of the GT site.

I also subscribe to and watch a few youtube guitar channels. The thing is, whenever I watch those contributors I notice that they usually quote some kind of music theory that I don't fully grasp yet...and I realize I am just copying someone else's work. So back to the grindstone with more fundamentals I go. Sort of like deciding between learning to memorize vs learning to be a critical thinker and come up with your own unique point of view. For example, I had figured out how to power chord my way through a bunch of Greenday songs before I ever tried Guitar Tricks and was happy enough to make awesome guitar sounds! I was only looking for a lesson system to satisfy my desire to understand the instrument more fully and considering the cost of 1-on-1 lessons this site won my business.

I am also fairly certain that I could progress much faster if I had access to 1-on-1 with an instructor from GT every day for 30-60 mins. They could point out small issues right away as opposed to me having to self evaluate. The problem is that you don't always connect with every human you interact with and guitar teachers are not exempt from this rule.

The point is that you could very well be happy memorizing a bunch of lick/riffs/songs and that is OK. To each their own. I will say this though, I have learned more with Guitar Tricks than on my own. If you are a beginner, it has everything you need to get you going in the right direction. The rest (practice) is up to you.

TL;DR GuitarTricks can take you from beginner to confident and there are other methods out there. Don't quit learning, just evaluate your progress and evolve your lesson plan.