By all means, it is fun to play with a language. And every person's brain works differently.

I like to use this metaphor, though. You're hiking a mountain, this journey to the "peak" is reaching some goal of fluency.

It's fun to stop and look at rocks, examining, comparing and whatnot. But it doesn't necessarily get you closer to the peak. I mean, it might, because you'll better understand your footing every-so-slightly. Not a perfect metaphor.