I could be wrong, but I feel like Luta Livra would be easier to learn / understand / more straight forward then nogi.
Also, maybe more fighting oriented than nogi.
Black Belt here...like anything, it could be really easy or really hard.
The main thing about Luta Livre is that people have a LOT of misconceptions or ideas about it. For example, a lot of people think that Luta Livre is only weird Neck Cranks, rare and imposible to do Leg Locks and pure brute force. Like BJJ, it has that but it all depends on who is the teacher and what he/she feels it is important to teach.
My first teacher was all about teaching techniques and positions that were useful in 1999. He is still teaching the same in 2023. My teacher nowadays, is someone who is really open minded and knows what is going on these days and is more about teaching what works and is useful. We had him here two weeks ago and spent a lot of time working on Leg Locks that are in line to what is being done today but with little less refinement and he told me this: "we have been doing this shit for years but because it didn't work for Vale Tudo we did not care too much about it".
Also, like you and my teacher said... everything was geared towards fighting. So in comparison to Modern Grappling, we have to wrestle for position ALWAYS and if we pull Guard it has to be for a very good reason. In my case I held my own against High level Black Belts as a Purple/Brown but it was mostly because of that, Wrestling for position which at the same time let to me being put in really bad spots because of that.
Sorry for the long-ass letter. We have a Luta Livre thread here, if you want we can continue there or here.
