TL;DR: go for it. It’s a great bike. It’ll get you where you want to go safely, comfortably, and cheaply, but not very quickly.
I’m also a new rider, started in late May and my first bike is the RE Classic 350. I took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation beginner course in mid-May. It wasn’t on my short list, but I think the Classic 350 was the right choice for me for a road bike.
The price of the bike is low and it gets good mileage. It has enough power for most streets and delivers that power in a predictable and manageable way. The bike seems heavy on a spec sheet, but when you’re in the saddle it’s very manageable; I haven’t had any trouble doing the exercises from my learner course on this bike or riding on the streets. I live in the northeast USA so the roads are pretty rough, but the suspension is good enough that I can barely feel it. The seat, foot pegs, and bars are in a comfy position so I don’t feel sore or tired. Mine came with a low rider seat and I can comfortably flat-foot my bike with leg space to spare; I’m 5’9" with a 31 inch in-seam.
Honestly, the most important things for me though may seem vain, but they’re important as a new rider. It’s a handsome bike and it sounds good too without being loud enough to bother neighbors or other motorists. When I go into my garage I get giddy seeing my bike there. When I go out I get comments about how sick the bike looks. It makes me really happy to ride it. It’s a bike that rewards me for riding it in a lot of ways, and that encouragement keeps me coming back even when I’m a little anxious as a new rider.
Get trained up and get the bike. Make sure you include your gear in your budget; a lot of beginners seem to blow all their money on the bike and then buy the worst helmet and no other PPE. Seen some of my former motorcycle classmates riding their much more expensive bikes with no gear and it freaks me out a little.
I started a few months ago. I generally use both brakes and progressively work down the gears as I slow down. You could do what you said and slow to a near stop on just engine braking, but it won’t engage your brake lights which puts you at risk. So even if you’re planning on engine braking the whole way make sure you are at least lightly pressing the brakes so the lights go on.
You could also do the other thing you said, pull in the clutch and jump all the way to 1st as soon as you start braking, but it could get you into some trouble too. I ride a 350cc bike with short gearing until 4th. The first 3 can comfortably get me to like 8, 15, 25mph. My 4th can take me basically to max speed and 5th is an overdrive. So say I’m coming to a red light so I rapidly go down to first because I plan on coming to a stop. Light turns green before I stop, I release the clutch and twist the throttle, and uh-oh I potentially damaged my engine because I just redlined it. If I remember I shifted into first I now have to figure out what gear I should be at and fumble to quickly reach it so I can accelerate. Both scenarios could be avoided if I just kept shifting to the correct gear for my current speed.