Hi marsippius,
I believe that your playing has good potential, and I encourage you to continue with your studies, both for continuing your progress with the piano as well as for your enjoyment in making music. I must admit that as a youngster I played this same piece.
Maxwell Eckstein (I'm not sure whether he's still alive now) was an editor and arranger often published by Carl Fischer Co. He also did some composing. I recall, when I was an intermediate student in the 1950s, that Eckstein arrangements, "revisions", and edited courses for the piano, were fairly popular as teaching pieces at the time. And from the student's perspective, playing his arrangements was also a way to play a famous and difficult piece that would have been impossible to learn using the actual score. In addition to the Liszt "Rhapsody No. 2", Eckstein's "Blue Lagoon" was another of his popular teaching pieces at the time. So this genre did have some usefulness as a teaching/learning tool. I don't know if today teachers of intermediate students still use any of Eckstein's stuff or not. Hopefully not.
But at this stage though, it sounds as though you're approaching your piano studies earnestly and seriously. If so, here's my advice: As you select repertoire for your level of performance,
avoid arrangements, simplifications, poor transcriptions (many are excellent), and heavily, over-edited sheet music. There is a virtually endless repertoire at ALL levels out there--including Baroque, Viennese Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, and Modern periods--that will better serve your purposes for learning and building a repertoire that will bring you years of enjoyment. You'll progress faster too by studying scores as written by the masters. Work closely with your teacher to carefully select suitable pieces of interest and challenge, using only respected editions.
Good luck in your piano playing endeavors!
Topic: Liszt Rhapsody No. 2 arranged by Maxwell Eckstein