i took a look about the link P22 its not (connections/ligatures)not complicated as you think its just forms to the letters in START /MIDDLE/END of the word its have some kind of different according to word (specially the letter BEFORE/and letter AFTER .. to not confuse there is ONLY 6 letters you cant write other letters contact in it directly (not Stick)...>>(ا-د-ذ-ر-ز-و)and 5 letters have forms look like< Crescent> you can write it in this form in the END of words ONLY (ع-غ-ح-خ-ج)its beside you can see HAMZAH=ء in different position /ways ..its just simple idea may be make your mind clearer about Arabic letters ...finally you cant compare Arabic and English because its have different way of write /direction(right-lift)+ a lot of details about grammar of each of them and others ..what ever you think it complicated and hard it will be easier with focus and practice..all the best in your study

I can reccomend 'Mastering Arabic Script' from Macmillan Education. It compares the printed Naskh with the Ruq'ah handwriting style. It contains a lot of handwriting exercises, both on the basics and the ligatures. It also offers reading exercises for those who find it hard to fluently read handwritten texts.

I am talking not only about lam+alif, but also about the many other combinations that are shorter than the standard combination of letters, like on page 22, Bild 6 https://image.linotype.com/files/pdf/AlfabetaArabica.pdf

Maybe a book by Mitchell 'Writing Arabic: A Practical Introduction to Ruq'ah Script' will help you

I am afraid I couldn’t understand what do you mean. Can you give examples to the problem that you face? Do you mean that you don’t differentiate among those letters when they are used in words? What about this site? I hope it helps. ‏http://arabicquick.com/learn-the-arabic-letter-lam/