In my opinion, it is pretty easy to skip the MN instructional videos and patch examples in the manual if you don’t want to see them, but they can show ideas that might not be apparent to anyone besides they module’s designers. As an example, I definitely wouldn’t own a Morphagene if I hadn’t seen specific demos that explain in detail how it works since it has so much going on and is relatively expensive, but it has immediately become my favorite piece of audio equipment.
On the topic of Clouds, I think the contrary is true: I believe if Olivier had posted some videos showing complex feedback routing or some odd modulation ideas when it came out, we might see that being used as more than a 1-in/2-out reverb unit more often.
On a similar note, I feel that I would enjoy the Mannequins modules quite a bit, but I personally have a pretty limited budget, limited amount of time to devote to trying out new modules, and am not near a physical modular shop, and therefore it can be prohibitive to acquire something that I feel I cannot begin to understand without using it first. The Rabid Elephant manuals got me much more interested in each of the modules that he covered, but I still feel there is a virtually infinite amount of experimentation left open. I don’t even remember what I read in that manual a few weeks ago, but I remember enough that I want a Cold Mac since it started to make sense to me.
