Instead of just saying "skip straight to CCR", look at what is optimal to learn on OC and when does it make sense to transition over to CCR.
It is foolish to look at CCR without first getting Advance Nitrox and Deco procedures done first. Get through those, spend some time doing some dives with that. Your deco rig will transition into a bailout rig. Now if you get Helium mixed in at this point, I don't really care. Some will mix it in with the AN/DP classes, others won't.
After that, look at CCR. With CCR you are diving a Nitrox blender and dealing with 100% O2. Thus you are in need of the Advanced Nitrox class. There is enough to learn with a rebreather that having a decent AN foundation is a must. Add in the time potential, it is hard to not get into planned deco with a rebreather.
Don't overlook finding a good instructor. There are those who have been diving rebreathers for many years/decades now, and those who just finished enough hours on there first rebreather to have an instructor rating.
Spend 6 months to a year just doing recreational dives getting to know the rebreather. Go back and get a normoxic class. That will probably get you to your target of "a little deeper and a little longer"
-My backstory, matches what the OP stated for reasons-
I started chasing my technical diving and getting a rebreather with the same thing. Diving a Southern California wreck I was a little annoyed at the end of the dive that I spent so much time and effort to get there, only got a few minutes actually on the wreck, was watching my air the whole time. I wanted a little longer time. There was also a P38 just outside of recreational limits I wanted to see. What does it take? Scouted local shops, found one that got me started. Credentials sounded good. Spent some time getting some basics out of the way, made it through AN/DP. Tried some sidemount stuff (should have done backmount doubles).
There was a try dive with what at the time was a new Poseidon rebreather. This was actually before I started chasing the technical side of things. It was enough to know this is some really cool stuff, but not what I wanted. But it stuck a bug in my head.
Once I was into the AN/DP stuff it opened up a lot of what I wanted to do. I had the time. I had a little more depth. Now the rebreather looked a lot more inviting. Lots of research. The local shop got me into DEMA one year where I could actually see everything and talk with people. There were some rebreathers that looked really good when reading about them, suddenly didn't look that good in person. The engineer in my head was pointing out stuff I didn't like. Arranged to meet up with an instructor and see if I liked them as a person, and try some rebreathers. Liked him, bought a rebreather, took a class. Year later, normoxic, 200'. Few months later I was having a blast diving in Truk.
