Visual Mill vs Visual Mill Basic questions

Hi folks,

http://www.mecsoft.com/Mec/Products/products.shtml

is a chart showing a comparison between the Visual Mill 5.0 and
VM Basic 5.0 software packages. There looks to be about a $3K
difference in price between the two.

I've got zero CNC experience though I've been trying to read as
much as I can on the subject. A problem I have is that a lot of
those extra features that the full version has over the Basic version
don't mean anything to me, and I've yet to find a good glossary of
CNC terms on the Internet that answers my questions.

I'm looking at all these things that the full package does, like
"horizontal re-roughing" and I'm finding that a lot of them don't tell
me much, coming from a "try to remove only the metal I don't want,
and just how that happens or how long it takes isn't too important
as long as I can achieve it" (hobby) manual machining background.
If I've already made a horizontal pass to hog off some metal with a
roughing tool, why would I want to "rerough" it?

I suspect that many of those features may be things that allow the
job to be done faster, or are "conversational programming" features
that let you avoid doing a 3D drawing/G code program to make
things. Do any of those things actually let you make something
that you couldn't make with the Basic version.or that a skilled
master machinist (not me) could make on a manual machine?

Speed is not of the essence in my consideration of doing a CNC
conversion. What I'm interested in is compensating for my lack of
skilled-machinist motor skills. I've got programming experience
and I am comfortable with computers, so CNC seems like a way to
leverage those skills/abilities and end up with some parts that I
might otherwise decide are just too big of a PITA for me to try and
make.

I suspect that I'm not the only newbie who wonders what all this
stuff is, and why it makes a difference, and would appreciate any
light that the experienced members of the group might be willing to
shed on the subject.

thanks,
Michael
http://www.eurospares.com