Hi! And welcome!
About the tablet, I've been touching my tablet since i first got it, not hovering at all. , My tablet is full of scratches, but that's not really noticable, except that the grip fades away after a while.. but since it's just a layer on top of your tablet, you can just order a new layer and replace the old one for, idk, close to zero money. Or so I heard.. xD
The only issue is the pen nibs, which tend to get flattened out after a while, I'm still using the default ones that I got with the tablet, but I'll soon have to order new ones. Not that they're expensive or anything, But yeah still easier to hover and not have to order new nibs..
It's just that I feel like I can be way more acurate by sliding instead of hovering, and also the fact that I'm so used to sliding at this point in time, it would take ages to get to the same skill lever by hovering (lazy)..
But if you're playing for the first time, definitely try out hovering first, if it gives problems you can still go to sliding.