So I made the leap and got a C++ compiler and tried to learn the language. That's where my enthusiasm waned. The tutorials were reasonably easy to follow, but I had a hard time figuring out the applications of these parts of the language. I'm still trying to figure out why pointers are so useful.
I see, that is a rather dry way to learn a language because as you say it is hard to see why some things are useful. In fact 90% of people only use 50% of any language, that is not many people try to learn it all because without context it is dry.
Pointers are really useful when you need them but I haven't needed them in all my arduino projects. A lot of effort is devoted to getting teams to work together successfully, that is the only way large projects can be done, but small projects on small machines don't need the same techniques.
As to the CNC, have you seen my conversion project?
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Hardware/CNC_Conversion.html