The Yocto Project feels huge and scary because it is powerful. But like baking sourdough, the first loaf takes time. The second loaf is easier. By the third loaf, you'll be writing your own layers and trimming every last kilobyte like a master chef.
Start small, read the documentation, and welcome to the world of custom embedded Linux. yocto project getting started
The elder explained, "Yocto is not a software you install. It’s a recipe book . You tell it what you want, and it bakes a custom Linux image just for your hardware." The Yocto Project feels huge and scary because