For a first time player, definitely. Once you're used to it it's fine.
The worst mistakes come from not knowing how many points you can expect to get and the rats tail of issues that comes with it (trying to specialize in too many things, not picking up enough life/defense, contradictory keystones, not knowing how effective some nodes really are, etc.). It restricts your choices much more than it appears at first, but not so much that you become completely reliant on what the designers picked for you behind the scenes.