I suggest you try it for yourself and not listen to all the clatter on this board. Functionally there's very little if any difference between Amiga hardware and UAE. Just try UAE and see if you like it.
I agree - do not let all the negative bantering scare you off. I say, go ahead and dive right into both WINUAE and the real hardware.
I find them both quite amazing, and yes it takes a bit of a learning curve to get used too, but this is not an unpleasant task. The Amiga's were intended to be fun, (and still can be). My first computer was an Amiga and back then I could not even spell computer...
For WinUAE might I suggest purchasing CLOANTO's Amiga Forver. The included AExplorer connects to the real Amiga via serial, and is very easy to setup. Installation is very easy, and also works with the Amikit package (which is quite stunning).
You can then capture ADF floppies from your Amiga and run a lot of them with WINUAE which also gives the added bonus of having a backup of your software,