I think the case re: lesson / learning is less clear, because in a “learning” there’s no teacher, you’ve all learned something, whereas lesson implies teacher and taught.
A lot of the time, a metaphorical lesson has no teacher, too. "Learning" is imported to the tech scene from India, where "a verb-ing" seems to be able to be the noun form of one instance of the verb (in certain contexts).
I still hate “learning” as a noun though.