I’ve used Finale for 40years. Is there a resource for someone who has no idea what anything is in Dorico to learn? I’m talking for real dummies: What is a player? What is a flow? How do I start a project without opening a template?
Welcome to the forum @contefamily!
There’s heaps of resources. Some places to start:
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Welcome to the forum.
A player is someone who plays an instrument- but perhaps they swap instruments mid-piece? (no problem, Dorico will handle it)
A flow is just a chunk of music. A Beethoven sonata may have one flow for each movement. A Song Book may have one flow for each song. An exercise book may have one flow for each exercise.
To start a project without a template try File>New.
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Some Dorico learning references here
There are many Finale to Dorico users willingly wanting to help others by actively answering questions here at the forum. Please feel free to ask questions. You can also search for threads 
because other Finale users transitioning have had to ask questions.
You will be frustrated because it is a different software program to learn, we all understand, as most of us have come from other notation software and had to spend time learning Dorico.
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Not sure Finale has been around for 40 years. Close, but not quite.
I know the feeling (I started with Finale 2.6.3 whenever that was, 1993?). Seems daunting but only at first. I recommend getting a decent xml import of a moderately difficult Finale score you know quite well, and forming it into a finished Dorico project. This will be a step by step process and it took me three weeks to get a really great looking score with a few parts, and about one more week to convert about 80 others - I had already confronted a few challenges by starting with a somewhat difficult piece. One huge bonus? You will spend very little time mucking around in the parts; Dorico is truly amazing with parts production.
A prolific writer here on the forum, Ben Byron-Wigfield (@benwiggy) has a helpful set of tutorials up on you tube. Here’s the starter. I also refer frequently to the standard Dorico tutorials.
[edit: reduplicating the playlist post above by @arco another prolific contributor here.]
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I feel your frustration too. I just use notation every now and again. I struggle with Dorico too. It’s a steep hill sometimes but I must say it is superbly written and by far the best tool to learn. Def stick with it.
These are questions as well as answers:
Most of my time is spent in the Write Window (button to find Top left second row). This is the cockpit.
In this window there are some crucial buttons without which you are at a halt. In the left pane the third button, “start note input”, this you need to always be conscious of, or you risk entering (or deleting) stuff with a random click.
On the RHS panel there are two crucial buttons at the top. (It would be good if these were colored or given some visual “special status”), The Panels button changes the functions of all the buttons below so that when you click them a “Panel” comes out, giving you detailed control over your task, and the “popover button” gives you small “popovers”. Popovers are used extensively for entering this and that, for example, clefs, key changes, lyrics, chords.
The Lesson learnt here is that the same buttons do different stuff if either button is selected. I suggest stay in popover by default.
I see the LHS as all about everyday note entry. The LHS assumes you have set up your musical environment like clef and key. It’s about sticking the notes of your ideas in. The RHS are about basics - like key signature and also finer enhancements, but not about actual note entry. That’s the job of the left hand side.
For me this knowledge was like getting into the driving seat and identifying mirrors and indicator.
Z
One Gotcha to be aware of is that the two lists (depending on which of the above you select) and NOT identical and if you are not in “Popover” mode you can’t see some stuff, like “Chords” or “lyrics” buttons.
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