Tangential question: PCIe is a pretty future-proof technology to learn/invest in, right? As in, it is very unlikely to become obsolete in the next 5-10 years (like USB)?
PCIe is probably the most future proof technology we have right now. Even if it is upheaveled at the hardware level, from the software perspective it just exposes a device's arbitrary registers to some memory mapped location. Software drivers for PCIe devices will continue to work the same.
Might as well be replaced by optical connectors next years, but who knows in advance. Currently there is no competition
Curious what you mean by learning? Learning about TLPs? Learning about FPGA DMA Engines like XDMA? Learning about PCIe switches / retimers? Learning about `lspci`?
PCIe expertise will certainly outlive anyone on this forum.
Neither of those is going to be obsolete in 5 years. Might get rebadged and a bunch of extensions, but there's such a huge install base that rapid change is unlikely. Neither Firewire nor Thunderbolt unseated USB.