I joined in March 2018, so I don’t know what it was like before then, but I don’t think anybody had any privileges on the last version. 
A Basic user, despite the name , has pretty much the same functionality as everyone else, apart from uploading photos (you have to graduate to Member for that, but it only takes a couple of weeks 
).
Most of the extra stuff is to make things more convenient (once you’ve figured out what everything does ). The only things you really need are reading and typing and you’re sorted. (and the Search is fantastic on here now too)
If you need a practice of anything you can have a play in the Sandbox, and feel free to ask any forum-related questions in there too, and we’ll see if we can point you to the right place.