Do not settle for simple task when working on personal projects during learning phase. I agree if you want to start small but always make sure to build something that has economic value as that will help boost your cv when job hunting.
There are benefits when you take and work on challenging tasks. This will help build your confidence as engineers, data scientist, data analyst etc.
My experience. While learning .net many years ago at the wake of .net 2.0, I worked on an imaginary bank online internet banking called BankX with the following features:
Onboarding.
Login
View balance
Transfer between 2 customers in BankX
I never knew I was going to work for a bank eventually. My interview session was so interesting and interractive as the hiring manager then was so impressed at my curiosity and willingness to create an online banking solution even without having worked for a bank before. I got hired amongst the 12 candidates that applied for the role.
Summary Work on quality projects that you can add to your cv to make you standout. These are the importance of working on a challenging tasks.
Image credit:Roberto Ferraro