HI there,
WOW, SO You get an AT a Boy on that one. Saved yourself a whole lot of head scratching, others would have just let you head into the quicksand… Not here, not on my watch… LOL
Nah’ your good it’s a great experiment and it can and does work, but as I said the JUICE isn’t worth the Squeeze. You learn more and benefit WAY more doing it the PC way. besides it’s a good flex to do all, WIN, Linux and embedded… No shame in that game.
Arduino, and PlatformIO on VScode at first, then branch out to something else like NORDIC SDK. NRF-SDK runs on VScode also.
they have the goods, all of it Hardware, Software and TOOLs, Lots of tools. 
You could torcher yourself and try the ESP-IDF but I would wait until you experience the others then you know which is better and more consistent, without a lot of (only works on the new version) nonsense…
those are my advice and thoughts on it. GLAD you got it sorted. Ask any questions you have lots of smart folks on here willing to help.
HTH
GL 
PJ 