Convenience of the Peripheral Driver Library

Hi All:
I was looking the Peripheral Driver Library, and I was wondering if it is worth using it in the applications. I mean,I don't know how much easy would be the use as I need to read a 500 pages manual, so I would prefer to program the hardware directly which would provide a better performance...
I would like to hear other comments, specially from those who are using it, or those who consider is not a good stuff.

Thanks in advance;
Gus