Welcome to your new hobby! It only takes a decision to go forward, and you're there. I've been a ham since I was a teen.
One of the things you'll learn about amateur radio is that it's a VERY wide hobby, in terms of what can be done and what you might find interesting.
In that, it's a lot like a hobby of firearms.
Some firearms guys like to shade-tree gunsmith, others get more serious.
Some like to shoot 6.5 Creedmoor at extreme distances and others prefer plinking with a rimfire rifle.
Maybe you are a trap shooter and love your 34" BT-99, or maybe you've gone tactical and have a set of uppers and lowers for your AR.
All these have analogies to ham radio.
Given that, if there was someone new to firearms, what advice would you give them?
Get a Hi-Point 9mm and a CCW?
Well, to learn if the Baofeng radios (I have several I want to pass along to others, if you are interested, from an estate sale) are a good option for a first radio, for you, I would need to know what expectations you have for this new hobby.
What are you planning to do? Or, do you not have any plan yet? No plan can be a great plan because that means all the possibilities still lie ahead! You might be the next guy to get
Honor Roll in 5 years, it could happen...
The truth is that the ham radio hobby is SO broad that trying to get involved in it by getting a handheld radio that is very low power, and operates on just two bands in one single mode might not give you the snapshot of what you could do.
You might get your license and the Baofeng and find that your interest lasts 90 minutes and part of that was charging up the battery.
The ham radio experience you get from the Baofeng is more akin to the Hi-Point shooting 9mm at an indoor range, and the Tech class license is like a NC CCW.
That pistol is not too expensive and does expose you to firearms, a little. But it's not necessarily a good first step nor indicative of the actual hobby in any way.
To answer your questions:
1. the chinese-made Baofeng isn't a particularly good radio, from an electronics standpoint. Plenty of other options exist, but not at the same price point. What's your budget, $15, or, $500?
2. just because a radio can access the modes and frequencies of other radio services does not make it legal to do so ... just saying.
The cheap Baofengs and similar can easily be made to operate on the FRS and GMRS frequencies