In the sample data with the Luma theme the home page is implemented with a Widget ("Home Page" Widget of type "CMS Static Block") plus block ("Home Page Block" containing the page content area html).
Particularly for a learning example, why not simply use a Page? It seems you can put the content into the Page, and assign the page to the CMS Home Page > Main Content Area. Would that not achieve the same effect?
(Related question with diagram: How does Luma theme home page work?)