I usually recommend the inexperienced do at least 1 project in godot:

https://godotengine.org/

Then port it to UE if they are interested in skill reuse for future projects:

https://www.unrealengine.com/

SDL has a lot of issues, and falls into the "only if you must" category. Still better than .NET or Java in many ways, as spacial audio is easy in the mixer. =3