I'll talk about my own experience. 5 years ago i never touched a cars brakes before. When my ford developed brake pull on the front disc brakes I broke down and decided to fix them myself.
What transpired turned into a epic journey. It went from a possible small brake repair to an entire brake system replacement. everything was no good.
I worked slowly and carefully figuring that even if i messed something up it was a million times better then what i currently had on the car.
I worked front to back, dreading dealing with Drum Brakes. Everyone told me Drum brakes are a nightmare, they didn't understand how they worked, nor understood how to adjust them.
I found a website with a 1969 mustang under restoration and used a photo of the drum brakes to see how everything fit together and what was missing on my car.
I figured out how to use the correct tools how everything fit together and once i understood how everything functioned the mystery of drum brakes were solved.
It took me over 5 months to do my first brake job, mostly because of endless back orders, and incorrect parts and having to go back and forth returning things 100 times.
After that brakes were easy for me.
I quickly turned around and started working on new cars that had brake issues for family and friends, and i got pretty good at spotting problems and making repairs.
I would encourage anyone whom has never worked on brakes to do research and do it for yourself at least once. If anything you will be able to spot bad or shady work done by a repair shop and save yourself from an accident or lawsuit.
the worst part of brake repair is dealing with DOT 2 or 3 or 4 brake fluid, the stuff is just nasty. I converted to DOT 5 when i did my car. the second worst thing is dealing with leaks in the brake system and stay AWAY FROM STAINLESS STEEL BRAKE LINES they are evil.