Yes. Too sensitive and you crash because you over-controlled. Not sensitive enough and you crash because the model could not be righted or corrected in time. When you're starting out you need a model that is forgiving because if you give the wrong control input to an aerobatic and sensitive model - like a warbird or a CAP - it is a heap of smoldering balsa before you can counter-react. Most pilots realize you can stall a model at slow speed, but you can stall many at high speed as well. Lots of WWII pilots died because they only had 100 hours in a plane and tried to do something outside the operating envelope. Pull up sharp and the wing stalls and you follow your bomb in.

I would not recommend electric to anyone but it is simpler as the learning curve for engine break-in, tuning and fuel flow concerns are absent. Though, last two times I was at the field the same pilot could not fly because of problems with his electrics (vibration on one pulled the motor loose and an electric motor that would not "throttle up" without stopping on another). As far as flying - the dinky electrics get away with crashes because they have little mass. When you're six, weigh 50 pounds and fall and skin your knee it hurts. When you're 46 and 150 lbs overweight the same fall will break your leg, hip and wrist as you try and catch yourself.