There is something to be said for learning any new discipline by steps and stages, and that may be what your gurus have in mind in recommending no expo for beginners.

However, the typical rotary servo translating into linear movement of a control surface pushrod exaggerates the action around neutral, and reduces the action at the extremes of stick movement. That produces jerky movement, which is one hallmark of novice flying.

When I started flying RC, I knew nothing about computer radios, expo and all the other refinements. When I got my first computer radio, the complexities were almost overwhelming. There's so much that a beginner is trying to be conscious of while learning to fly, I'm sure it helps to leave some of these complexities out of the equation until you make some progress along the learning curve.

But, when I finally did get around to trying out the expo, it made a world of difference in my flying, mostly by smoothing out the jerky movements and making my flights look a lot more like scale.

I read somewhere, probably here on rcu, that it takes 40% expo (that's minus 40% in Futaba speak) just to neutralize the exaggeration of stick movement around neutral. In other words, when you move the stick 5% of full throw forward or back, you get control surface movement that is 5% of full movement. That's a lot better, flying wise, than moving your stick what feels like just a hair and having your model hop up and down like a jackrabbit.

If you have a flight simulator (like RealFlight G2) you can "Edit Radio" and set your expo and see the effects on your favorite model. I highly recommend G2 or something like it to move the learning process along.

I have all my models set up for -60% expo on rudder, elevator and ailerons. I fly everything this way all the time, and like the results way better than herking and jerking all over the place. The only qualification I would add in recommending this practice to a beginner is to understand the geometry of servo movement, linkage geometry and what how the control surface moves relative to stick movement. I still plot all my linkages on a drawing board when setting up every new model, probably because I'm the anal/obsessive type, which for an RC flyer is imho a good way to go.

I don't exactly know how far you can cock the wheels of your typical family automobile, but I'm going to guess it might be 35' for the tightest possible turning radius. In order to get your wheels all the way over, you have to turn your steering wheel like maybe ten times that, more or less a full 360' turn of the wheel. That's sorta like -90% expo. Maybe one of the engineer types will come in and clear up my fuzzy math. Anyway, expo does wonders for smoothing your flight movements.