By personal choice, I do most development by just reading the code, or possibly adding a print statement or by toggling some output pins.

But I really think a beginner should consider the SiLabs route. On-chip debugging is so very valuable of you have a problem where the program doesn't survive all the way to main() or hangs in an ISR. It takes a lot of experience to be able to just read code and be able to see in the head the implications of the individual source code lines. Definitely consider a chip with built-in debugging support!