Is Taiwan a 'bad choice' for my first international flight?

Hello! I'm an aspiring solo traveler and I'm currently planning a trip to Taiwan sometime this May or summer. I'm just waiting on my passport to be processed and immediately I'll book my flight and hotel.

I have a huge passion for history, geography and learning about cultures all over the world so I'm pretty familiar with the rundown on Taiwan.

But as someone who only had a modest travel history (pretty much Hawaii [my home state] to Nevada) is Taiwan a bad choice for my first international trip? I really want to travel to Taiwan because from what I research, it has a ton of cool stuff to see and I hear it's relatively affordable plus it's very unique. My family or friends never went to Taiwan so I consider it to be slight bragging rights. :P and admittedly uh, given geopolitics right now, I feel really like I got to travel to Taiwan before anything happens.

I feel confident on what I'm going to be packing for a week trip (my focus is on Taipei to sort of get my bearings but also plan to try check out other parts of the island) and I did research on how to do all the international travel stuff as an American. AKA passport, the visa thing (as in: no need for a visa iirc for USA travelers but still need to do X or Y), and basically pre-trip stuff.

But is Taipei and the rest of Taiwan easy to get around in? I don't own a driver's licence so rental cars is a no-go but iirc public transportation, rideshare and walkability is more viable than where I've been to so that's good.

How easy it is to navigate TPE? Also assuming my layovers are in Narita or Incheon airports (though they are not exactly relevant to this subreddit). I'm sort of scared of getting lost in an airport lol but if I can navigate HNL or LAS then it can't be that bad either?

And also payment. Is Taiwan mainly cash or card? Can I use my American debit/credit or its better to use a local card? I did hear there's that train card that you can reload cash into pretty easily and it works as both your MRT card and as a form of payment but I don't know how to acquire that when I land.