>... I'm just not sure where to invest my time.
I use core as well with minimal set-up - no fields, limited plugins to future-proof parsing down the road to another system if browser dependency someday breaks.
But there are so many cool things that it is hard not to try/play :-) and if you think of TiddlyWiki as a document as well as a database, quine, SPA et al, you can have as many different forms you want: a template wiki, playground testing wiki, project wiki, subject matter wikipedia-type wiki, wikiwiki, etc The import/export is mature and versatile to port amongst and beyond.
If I want to try something new, i template empty.html by tagging nifty imported stuff that works well with a tag like TwAddOn. That way I can export - import to a new iteration as needed. Even though i also use another wiki, TiddlyWiki is so fast for prototyping and the learning curve/self-contained interoperability is waay lower than setting up LAMP and trying to send that by email to a friend :-) Well worth the time to play with.
The nice thing is TiddlyWiki has stood the test of time and remains fresh with great helpful experts/enthusiasts/community and surprisingly refreshingly progressive upgrades/updates from Jeremy et al.
Have fun,
another tony