The idea that you should do what works for you, and what you enjoy, makes sense. Hold that as a touchstone.
Unless you buy a set or near set, you're setting out on a long term endeavor. It will test your patience and sticktoitness.
Consider ignoring the Becket numbers and collecting / sorting by team, and then alphabetically. That's how the cards were sorted by kids a hundred years ago, and also by the early collectors. Maybe pick a team and try to complete that team. That way to can attain several successes / milestones as you journey toward completion.
Storage of slabbed cards can be a pain, when compared to natural cards. And, you can gather more natural cards than you can slabbed cards with the same amount of money; so going natural can get you farther along quicker. Even if you chase the natural cards you may well find yourself occasionally getting a graded card because you can find it while there's no such natural card to be found. Then, do you break it out? I do much of the time. Or do you leave it slabbed? I still have a few that I've yet to liberate. Most collectors never break out a graded card.
A good aspect of gathering natural cards is that you can sort a team by series, and see the evolution of the series, the changes in uniforms, and poses. Easy to see with cards side by side. Not so easy when cards are in slabs.
If you're going to sell the cards in a few years, then you maybe should lean toward graded cards. If you're going to keep them a while, it shouldn't matter.
Learn to spot trimmed cards. You need to reach a point where you can discern them even in an eBay photo. Even if you're ok with them being in your collection, you should still be aware of what they are.
High quality natural cards are a bit of a pain, you don't want to handle them so much that they acquire dings and lose value. A G to VG natural card, with good color and registration, is a joy to hold.
So think about acquiring cards in a way so that you can have occasional success points. Keep a list of the cards, date the acquisition and giving it a number. It's neat to see how long it takes you to get half of the cards, 300 cards, then 400, then 450, then 500. I think I got to 513 different fronts before I sold a bunch...
Maybe ignore all of that, and only collect Polar Bear cards... especially if that's what you want to collect!!!
Wish you well with it.
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