That fact that EGA and SGA have played mayor roles is uncontroversial. But they contain many volumes/chapters and going through them would take a lot of time, especially if you do not speak French.

This raises the question if a student, like me, should even bother reading EGA. There must nowadays be less time-consuming ways to absorb the "required knowledge" needed to do "serious" (non-arithmetic) algebraic geometry.

I would like to hear what professional algebraic geometers would recommend their students in this matter.