I dont see you'll have any troubles with an AK. Simple and easy to shoot, more than reasonably accurate. Handling and ergonomics are actually very good, once you understand how they work and learn how to properly work them. Anyone that tells you otherwise, is showing their lack of experience with one.
.22's are fine for plinking and some practice, but they do little to teach you to shoot centerfire, and especially a combat type rifle.
Good instruction and good practice are what counts, what you learn on really doenst matter, as long as you take the time to learn properly, and with someone who knows what they are doing. If your interested in the AK, then find someone who knows and understands the gun and get them to help you. They are easy to learn, and easy to shoot well with, even at ranges many will tell you you cant. Just because the mag will hold 30 doesnt mean you have to put 30 in it, or dump (or bump) them when you do.
Also learn to shoot from realistic field positions and stay away from a shooting bench. If you want to learn to shoot, the bench will not teach you anything, unless you intend on being a bench rest shooter.
AK - archaic open sights, stocks that are too short, and usually dismal trigger.
I have to disagree here. The sights on an AK are the same sights on just about any hunting rifle, shotgun, or military surplus rifle. They are simple and work well enough, and actually better than a peep in some instances.
The proper length AK stock has the same LOP as most all the other military rifles, about 13". Its the same LOP as a M16/M16A1, M14, Garand, etc. The M16A2, at about 5/8" longer, is actually to long, and instantly noticeable (and annoying) when you try to shoot one when your used to shooting proper length combat rifles.
I own a number of AK's, I've also shot a bunch more. Every AK I've shot has had a decent to very good trigger, and all were better trigger than a stock AR/M16 trigger. Even those that had "slap", still were decent triggers, shooting wise, they were just more painful to shoot with after awhile. Slap, if you should encounter it, is also usually easily fixed.
It's no fun shooting targets when the rifle can't shoot better than, say, 5" groups at 100 yards.
If your AK cant shoot better than this, its probably not the guns fault. With decent ammo, 5" at 200 yards is a very reasonable expectation from even the cheapest AK's, and that using the stock iron sights.