As someone who has had enough back-to-back tourist visas to fill 2 passports, I can say that your outlook on visas is naive in the extreme. Be prepared to move along or go to quite some effort/expense to stay.
For an example of one of the subtleties I'm talking about: you need to show 400,000-800,000THB in a Thai bank account for a non-O (yearly renewal) visa. There used to be "visa agents" who would let you "borrow" this sum just long enough to flash to immigration officials. Having learned of this, the government mandated that the cash must remain deposited for 3 months. It's purpose is obvious and I can tell you that it's strongly enforced.
Another not so subtle point is that, if you get back-to-back tourist visa, you'll be visiting the border at least 6 times per year and consuming 24 passport pages per year. Passport reissue pretty much requires you to fly home.
Education visas require proof of enrolment in a real institution, which is also quite strongly enforced. There's a 4 year limit on renewals and you must renew out-of-country every year.
Getting the picture yet....? Short term tourist visas are deceptively easy. Everything else isn't.
The condescension was fully justified and the commenter in question was quite accurate. As yet another jaded expat who has lived in Thailand for ~8 years, and initially arrived as a naive, idealistic backpacker, I can only agree with his comments. On the "4 Stages of Competence" scale, the OP is at stage 1.