Laszlo: 

Cinelerra ... seems to "speak an exotic language" to me.
So prepare to a lot of newbie stupid questions from me in the near
future. (Still trying things before bothering you...)

Welcome to Cinelerra!  Ask any newbie questions you want.  A lot of us are still newbie too and even if not newbie, everyone seems to do things differently.

I am would be very interested to see if cinelerra can handle "Videos created with phones often are not just simply long GOP, but are also variable frame rate. If something, that can screw up timeline to my
experience".  I think that will not be a problem, but I would like to know so gg can look at it if it is.

GG/Phyllis