I have sailed on boats with in-mast quite a lot. Yes there is a learning curve, but I didn't find it all that steep. Actually I found in-mast to be more forgiving than in-boom. However, neither was that difficult. As SG mentioned, the big down side of in-mast is sail shape and trim. I remember sailing on one boat with an old in-mast sail that was a bit bagged out. We never had a problem furling/un-furling it, but the sail shape was so bad that the sail gave almost no drive. When that sail was replaced with a heavier, stiffer new sail the change was huge.

I think you will like the ease of the system once you get used to it.

Todd