Noob concern: "Efficient leveling" ruining my enjoyment :(

After years of hearing about it and also thoroughly enjoying Skyrim, I decided to play some Morrowind. Had some difficulty deciding on a character but been playing a light armored blunt user. Unfortunately reading all the efficient leveling stuff (you know, making sure you get enough skill so you can raise a stat by 5) has got me kind of bummed. I really just want to get into the story and enjoy my first playthrough and explore etc etc ..but all I can think about it raising this or that skill etc etc so I can get the max 5 to a stat on level up. Killing my desire to play the game.

Do I really have to worry about this too much for my first playthrough? Can I just play and have fun and will I mostly be fine if a certain skill say only gets 2 pts etc?

I didn't do anything special and I had a blast. Just do what you want it won't matter that much.

If you get stuck or frustrated use a mod if on PC or use trap skill raise glitch. Its a single player game, who cares how you play, have fun.

The same thing ruined Oblivion for me. The obsessive part of myself wanted an optimized character, and in order to do that you have to spend the first half of the game using skills you don't want to use in order to gain levels with the right skills or some shit and I ended up just not playing it at all because it was such an incredibly not-fun, janky process. I think I would have enjoyed the game a great deal more if I'd just played and didn't worry about any of that. A friend of mine who loves Elder Scrolls concurs that the older games (Morrowind and Oblivion anyway) are best enjoyed without nitpicking over all the finer details. Save that for a second playthrough or something if you really feel like it.

Don't worry, the combat and leveling system in Morrowind are by far the worst things about it. (Source: someone who loves Morrowind to death and has put ~200 hours into it)

Find a cheesy strategy that works, and save-scum as needed. I recommend finding a Daedric shrine and jacking one of the fancy Daedric weapons from it.

And turn on "Always use best attack" in the options menu.

No, just go out and enjoy the world. There's plenty of stuff to do on the sides to gain sufficient levels, don't ruin the game for your self by over thinking the crappy leveling systems.

If your really that unhappy with your stats you could always use the console comands to level-up but this opens up a whole other rabbit hole of ruining the game for yourself.