@enkidoe
This: "That one gets the time to spend months on learning a scripting language ......."
No disagreement per se but it is very likely that, in some very straightforward and simple manner you can GET quite a bit of what you need to know about your network environment.
Just a bit of googling is all that is necessary.
Powershell uses Get cmdlets whose results can be displayed, printed, or piped to other cmdlets.
For example:
Get-SmbShare | Get-SmbShareAccess
Just ran the cmdlet on my computer:
Results:
PS C:\Users\XXXX > Get-SmbShare | Get-SmbShareAccess
Name ScopeName AccountName AccessControlType AccessRight
---- --------- ----------- ----------------- -----------
C$ * BUILTIN\Administrators Allow Full
IPC$ * BUILTIN\Administrators Allow Full
C$ * BUILTIN\Backup Operators Allow Full
IPC$ * BUILTIN\Backup Operators Allow Full
C$ * NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Allow Full
ADMIN$ * BUILTIN\Administrators Allow Full
IPC$ * NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Allow Full
ADMIN$ * BUILTIN\Backup Operators Allow Full
F$ * BUILTIN\Administrators Allow Full
ADMIN$ * NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Allow Full
F$ * BUILTIN\Backup Operators Allow Full
F$ * NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Allow Full
D$ * BUILTIN\Administrators Allow Full
D$ * BUILTIN\Backup Operators Allow Full
D$ * NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Allow Full
====
My point being that it only took a few minutes to find some "script" that may be good start on finding out some of what you need to know with regards to your environment.
Likely that, overall, you will be able to obtain about 80% of what you need to know based on about 20% of the overall effort.
And there are many Powershell scripts available that will scan a network and gather information regarding the targeted devices.
People post all sorts of Powershell scripts and make them (aka "nifty tools") available for public use. Take advantage of those peoples' work and effort.
There certainly are and will be circumstances where a Powershell script is complicated - true for any coding language.
Start small and simple. Build your knowledge and skills accordingly.
I would rather have a dozen simple scripts to work with than some huge cumbersome "all singing all dancing" script that is a nightmare to maintain and document. And possibly go sour with some future changes by Microsoft or other involved entity.
Plus being able to eventually to customize and otherwise enhance scripts will likely save you more time in the future. And add to your professional growth.