Most videos use Spine Professional, as you probably found. I don't know of Spine Essential videos, but this page is all Spine Essential:
http://esotericsoftware.com/files/Gamasutra-Carlos-Cavalcante-Tips-to-create-funny-and-juicy-character-animations-with-Spine-basics/
While you are more limited with Spine Essential, in that you can't stretch things in just any direction, it doesn't mean the animations have to be worse. In fact it can be easier to focus on the animation when you aren't distracted by fancy features. Animating well with advanced features requires building on top of good basic skills.
