Having only written a couple small apps in Phoenix, none of which have needed to scale beyond a single instance yet, I think it's quite possible to build a Phoenix app without even knowing about the actor model or what OTP is. I read Dave Thomas's book first so I've built toy apps using Gen Servers, Supervisors, etc, but so far have needed none of that to write apps in Phoenix. (CRUD apps that make calls to 3rd party servers).
That said, I wouldn't advocate jumping into Phoenix with zero Elixir knowledge. You'll have a tough time. And knowing about OTP/supervision is also recommended because you'll be much better off in the long term. I don't think you can avoid it forever.
That said, I wouldn't advocate jumping into Phoenix with zero Elixir knowledge. You'll have a tough time. And knowing about OTP/supervision is also recommended because you'll be much better off in the long term. I don't think you can avoid it forever.