Photoshop Elements or Photoshop First? Learning From Scratch ...

One of the great things about Elements that you don't seem to be aware of is the Organizer which comes as part of your Elements purchase.  This creates a media database for viewing and, yes, organizing your photos and videos.  Bridge is more of a file browser which is more dependent on your folder structure for viewing the photos stored on your computer.  The Organizer doesn't care much about your folder structure.  With a little work, you can find your photos no matter where they are on your computer.  As @hatstead suggests, you can download a free copy of Elements to see its capabilities.  I believe you can also download a free copy of Bridge to compare it.

As for whether you should start with Photoshop CC or Elements, I think you need to understand that CC has many more feature options for most of the tools.  But as a beginner, those features may be overwhelming and make the entire process of editing more complex than you need it to be.  I would say that for most editing tasks, there is very little that can be done in CC that can't be done in Elements.  I have both programs, but 90% of the time, I use Elements.

Both programs have guided tutorials within the interface to help you out.

There are many similarities between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.  Some things are done differently on one program than the other, but it is not difficult to transition from one to the other.

Photoshop Elements has Guided Edits which can do stuff fast, but gives you less control about how it is done.  You can use the Expert Mode, however, to do those things manually.

The Catalog is just what its name says: It's a database of your photos. Bridge is the Photoshop equivalent of that.

I don't use the Catalog because I like to organize my photos another way.

I use both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop, but I prefer Photoshop because I like the interface and the workflow better.

I'd suggest downloading the 30 day trial of Photoshop Elements and play with it.

Then download the 7 day trial of Photoshop.  That may help you make a decision.

Suggest that you start out with PhotoshopElements. This is ideal for a novice consumer. You purchase the software and there are no monthly fees - - it is yours.

The skills that you acquire in Photoshop Elements are readily transferable to full Photoshop.

Unless you intend to utilize the software for professional purposes, you may stick with the consumer version: Photoshp Elements,

There is a good user guide and several books are available in physical stores and Amazon.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/user-guide.html

Try the free 30-day trial:

https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-elements/download-trial/try.html

If you intend on eventually using Photoshop, I'd go with the Photography Plan:

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/compare-plans.html?promoid=9DJJ4N49&mv=other

There are many tutorials available from Adobe:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/tutorials.html

The only issue you might run into is that the Photoshop Elements Catalog and Bridge (the CC version) are not on speaking terms.  You will not be able to convert the Catalog to Bridge. You don't, however, have to use the catalog.