BabaJ

I like the viewport IPR and the easy control of multiple lights

For me it's the opposite…I like the Stage context because having multiple lights is much easier to manage and ‘Tinker’.

What I normally do is take the original photo image and play with it in something Like Photoshop - and create/run it through color/misc. adjustments saving out as an export - making note of it's resolution.

Create grid in Houdini with same resolution and bring the image in using an attribute from map node.

Run that through a wrangle for height adjustment with any code that suits your purpose.

Afterwards you can reapply color attributes from another Photoshop exported layer or even the original image.

“but something like Vex - being able to ask questions and solve problems with others who are on similar levels of skill could be quite valuable and help people with sticking with it. Anyone interested?”

You have a good idea…but don't let that stop you from getting into it right away. You might be surprised that it won't take too long to get very good/use to working with vex.

Go ahead and start exploratory examples/projects and post your hip with your questions here. Besides getting feedback for yourself, you will be helping others who may be having the same questions now and in the future(through forum searches).