There's little here in this thread that hasn't already been said. Brass tacks is that you can become a reasonably good player and it should not take an enormous amount of time. A few years? Sure. But not like you will hit some magic marker at 10 years and a light goes on. I realize that's not what you're thinking.

Priority one with playing is just to enjoy it. No matter how great or terrible you may be at that moment. Attitude is important. Sure, you will have moments where you're not getting something and it can be frustrating. Don't let the momentary take over the long term. Always remember your ultimate goal is to enjoy.

With that said and that attitude engaged, the greatest progress is made working on your weak points. While the seems like such a basic thing to say, people often play the stuff they like to play and gloss over that which they don't.

One of the benefits of targeted practice is to overcome your shortcomings. Many people structure their lessons around a warm up (playing 'easy stuff'), then a targeted practice on the tough stuff followed with just general noodling to wrap it up. Something like that. If you're goal is to become capable, you do have to target specifically your weaknesses. Just don't forget that you should never become so frustrated that you want to give it up. Many folks do that.

For as long as I've been playing, the players that make it past the stage where you're not seen as a beginner skill level all posessed the ability to not be afraid of their weaknesses and further, learned that you will always have another weakness as a player and that you'lll need to overcome it. The players that flourish are the players that embrace that challenge and even enjoy it.

I've been taking on a little more chicken pickin' lately. I'm not great at it so I find that each time I pick up the guitar, I want to try a little more pickin'. I don't have structure practices but I've been playing a long time and have a solid set if skills so I'm able to really just go to the skills I want to build. At your stage, you're still likely to need the baseline skills, but I'd also guess you have more than you give yourself credit for.

So, there ya go. My thoughts.