The number of open issues is still quite small for a project the scope of Nixpkgs so I would not worry about it. If it is a legitimate bug, project will benefit from you opening the issue – people with the ability to fix the bug cannot really fix it unless they notice it, and opening an issue might bring it to their attention sooner.
And if it is caused by your ignorance, there is a good chance somebody else will have the same experience. So opening an issue and getting a resolution might help other people sharing the ignorance.
Sure, you should always attempt to resolve the problem yourself, at minimum by trying to search for parts of the error message, but if you fail, the community is there to help you.