I myself do not really view “What is to be Done?” as a great beginner work for Marxists, since it mentions a lot of obscure philosophers or groups that a modern audience (with their cursory knowledge of Russian history being from the lips of liberals, or worse, conservatives) would hardly know the context of, and I am reading a version that has notes on these people!
That is not to say that it is not an influential or essential work of Lenin (I think it might be up there with “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” and “The State and Revolution” in terms of either factor), but one has to be willing to trudge through Russian names that you will likely never hear again.
Dialectical methodology was used by Marx to analyze classical economics, Engels noted evolution as dialectics at work, and psychology can be analyzed dialectically. I am unfamiliar with what you mean by “critical realism” and “complexity science,” but I don’t see why they surpass dialectics. What do you believe dialectics to be, and why do you think these areas are better without dialectics?