Question before buying, how complex is the signal system?
The signals are similar to path signals in OpenTTD, if you are familiar with that. (There is nothing like block signals.)
In Distributrains, trains work by reserving a path towards their destination. A train has to wait if the path it tries to reserve overlaps with the reservation of another train. If they see (the front side of) a signal while trying to reserve a path, then they stop reserving there. In essence, signals are used to shorten the path reservations to reduce conflicts.
There are two signal types: One-way Signals can never be passed from the back side, and Back-traversable Signals are ignored from the back side.
The rules are simple, and trains will never crash, but using signals optimally can be difficult. The game has a couple tutorials about this. Active path reservations are always drawn on the tracks, there is a pathfinding visualiser, and an option to draw signal direction arrows on the tracks.
I don't know that you can ignore them, but in my experience (which might be skewed because I'm comfortable with OpenTTD signals) the fact that they're "path-like" signals means that in most circumstances all you really need to do is drag a line of signals down a track in the direction you want trains to go on that track.