At this point in my learning flow I've only been working with primitives and slightly altered primitive meshes. Is it even possible to make something like the rim shown in the video with primitives with modifiers, or should I skip this exercise and follow through with the other lessons?
To answer my own question: Yes.
I recommend that anyone having the same problem as me to skip to the Sculpting and Retopology courses further down the learning flow. The things you'll find there are essential towards making something that isn't a torus with really tall cylinders in the middle.