Sonic is on the same level as Mario when it comes to being normie slopper, it's not all autismo, it's never to late to get into Sonic and of-course you'll get confused about everything for about a month but you'll get over it.
Sonic's the sort of franchise you have to get into young to truely get it if that's the correct way to put it, I couldn't imagine being a new fan and joining the rocky road that is this franchise in a year like 2023 or 2024, there's simply too much to learn and understand that it'd leave people's heads spinning (Unintentional joke btw) and that's only if you intend to only understand and play the games from a lore perspective, if you try and join any fan-discussion and be taken seriously you need almost encyclopedic knowledge on writers, artists, their histories before the franchise and everything else that comes from the Sonic franchise being so delicate and fragile to the point where a couple 4/10 games turned it into a public laughing stock for years on the internet.
I suppose the best way to start would either be the IDW comics or the games as that's the basic "starter-pack" for newfags, if you want to be daring read Archie or watch Sonic X alongside IDW and playing the games as those are the only how could I say "Cared about?" splinters of the franchise as to this day you'll still hear people talk about X and Archie like they're still around just due to the impact they left alone, it's commendable. If you want to go balls-deep, read everything and learn everything, even if it's shit nobody will ever care about. "Sonic's Shoes Blues?" read it. "Sonic the Hedgehog and the Silicon Warriors?" get to reading and make sure to have fun.