Why do all German language resources suggest learning nouns with "der, die and das"? Assuming the noun is singular, a noun heard in context with either "die" and "das" can have its gender uniquely inferred. But "der" could be male or female. So why not learn "den, die and das"?
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Not sure if it makes it easier, but I think the assumption is that you learn the words in the Nominativ case, which is the base case. And then you learn rules about what the article turns into for each of the other cases.
Yes, nominative is a sensible default on the basis that you can't have a sentence without it... it just gets confusing when half of the words you hear with "der" are feminine. I've learned the table of definite articles, and that's basically how I work out articles etc.