Civic hatchback sport CVT owner wanting to switch to manual. No manual driving experience. Advice?

My Civic is easier to drive than most other manual transmission cars.
1) Brake hold means that the car will not roll backwards when starting on a hill.
2) An electronic interlock keeps the engine from starting unless you are depressing the clutch.
3) Another interlock makes it impossible to accidentally shift into reverse when the car is moving forward.
4) The gears shift smoothly. Six gears are more than you need, but that's OK.
5) The engine has great torque. In most circumstances, you can punch the throttle and speed up without downshifting. (I have the 1.5 liter sedan, not an SI.) It seems like the engine never knocks.
6) The clutch is hydraulic, and a little part called a "clutch delay valve" restricts the flow of fluid to slow down the rate at which the clutch engages. This helps to prevent stalling and shocks to the drive train. Some people (the ones who turn off Traction Control and strive to get the best 0-60 times) have actually removed the part to get a more abrupt engagement.
7) The clutch engagement point is really low. The 2000 Volkswagen Passat that I used to drive had a self adjusting clutch, and there was no engagement at all until the pedal was almost completely released. For a beginner, that can be hard to get used to. In the Civic, the clutch begins to engage and the car begins to move by the time the clutch pedal is just two or three inches off the floor.
8) There is a really good digital tachometer on the instrument panel to help you see what you are doing. The top of the speedometer has colored LED's that show green when you are driving in a fuel efficient way, white when you are not, and blinking red when the engine RPM is close to the redline.

Find someone with a manual transmission car and go for a ride. I think that you will like it.

I'm a relic from the past when most cars were manual because automatics flat out sucked. They even taught you how to drive manual transmissions in high school. Times sure have changed but I digress...

The very first thing you should do is learn how a manual transmission works. By this I mean what the clutch pedal actually does when you press and release it, what the gear shift actually does when you row through the gearbox, what the gearbox actually does, you get the idea. This is how drivers education started in New York public schools back in the day and I have to say that it's truly the best way to introduce manual transmissions to those who have no experience.

Next, I would NEVER consider learning on a new car. No matter how easy and well built the Honda manual transmission is, the fundamental components will take excessive wear at the hands of a farm fresh manual transmission driver. You can't rent manuals anymore so you're pretty much left with driving schools or buying some old shitbox learner vehicle. I would avoid learning on a friend's car because I've seen this go sideways more than once.

And now, romance is met with reality.

Requirements drive solutions. While it may sound romantic to be more in touch with the drive train of your car, it can tell you that nothing sucks more than driving a manual in bumper-to-bumper traffic everyday. You'll hate the car in a month. Ask yourself if a manual transmission is the right car for you right now or if you should grab a cheap beater to learn on when you're not commuting or trying to drive around an urban setting.

Unlike muscle cars, your Honda will take a big hit when trading in/privately selling a manual transmission car. People simply don't want them like they used to so you should consider this on the back end of your ownership.

Finally, please tell us what you've ultimately decided to do and if anything in this thread helped you out.

Best of luck, OP.

My advice: Not worth it.

If your thinking of tuning, that CVT will hold you back. Civic has rev matching so it'll be easy to learn manual.

My very first car was a 1978 Honda Civic and it was a manual. I had no idea how to drive a manual and this predates youtube so I had to learn on my own. It was a challenge especially when you came to a stop and forgot to downshift to first gear and you stall out as you approach the light or forget to put in first gear once the light turns green and you stall out or trying to go up a steep hill without rolling backwards. A manual once learned can be fun to drive until you hit stop and go freeway traffic and you got to shift first to second gear to first gear for a couple of miles worth of that agonizingly slow damn freeway.
Los Angeles is the perfect example, the only time you can drive from LA to San Diego and not have any traffic is about 2-3 am in the morning and then you have to watch out for drunks and cops.