The Sport Cub S is an excellent trainer, HOWEVER Safe mode does teach you bad habits compared to learning the traditional way. If you have more money the larger Apprentice is excellent, those end up as second hand bargains quite often as well.
I own the Sport Cub S, I did teach myself the basics with it, it’s huge fun to use and not bad value for money, the toy TX that comes in the RTF bundle is fine for learning, you DO NOT need a full Spektrum TX, the DXE is not a good one either. One of the best things about that plane is anyone can fly it in safe, you can just scoot around on one stick once you get throttle control sorted and the CG right. It’s also awesome for touch and goes on calm days. It can have a $20 camera plugged in for FPV but isn’t very exciting on a camera, plus it takes a bit off the flight time. There’s lots of fun and cheap ways of getting into FPV later, like the FT mini Arrow, Scout or almost any plane can be fitted with a cheap VTX/Camera combo and flown FPV.
You can fly the Sport Cub S in very small spaces, it needs tuning to be really smooth, you have to CG it and I added a little nose weight to mine. There’s lots of videos on setting it up. Batteries are really cheap from Hobbyking, you can run the 200mah 1s Whoop type ones, they are $12 ish for 6 packs. The Sport Cub weighs well under 250g so new RC registration legislation won’t apply in most countries, check local laws.
You can’t fly the Sport Cub in higher than 10mph wind, it’s super light nature and low speed means it can blow away easily.
If you want to just fly Horizon Hobby BNF planes then you can use several other, better TX’s to do that. Many are under $100 and just as good (some say better) than Spektrum. If you have a more experienced FRIEND who will BUDDY BOX you and they have Spektrum then it’s easier to buy Spektrum, just get a second hand TX for that.
If you want to build something AND fly it, then FT designs are excellent and can be flown off a $35 Flysky 6ch transmitter very nicely, the Tiny Trainer is much better than the Cub IMO, easier to repair, can be built as a 3 or 4 channel, is easier to mod, can run on 2 or 3s and is cheaper as a speedbuild kit.
I would recommend buying the speedbuild kit if you want to build your first FT plane. Keep the frames from the foam board sheets then you can cut out new parts if you break anything. Get spare power pods and firewalls, you will break a lot of both as you learn.