Area Light being super weak The tutorial that I am following sets the power of a Area Light object to 500W and even turns down the distance. When I do this, the light barely shows, I have to crank it up to like 5000-50,000 for it to be noticeable. Is there any reason for this? Again, I am a beginner so this might be a bad question. Also I am in render view so the light should show. And I have made sure to apply the texture cause when I really crank it up there is a light.
The long and short of it is that the values for lights in cycles don't directly correspond to values you'd use in everyday life.  Sun lamps are expressed in irradiance, for example.  Things in blender also have default values that are often set to meet the needs/expectations of the greatest number of people and may not necessarily be what you need.
You can read a little more in the documentation.