What can be created with blender is quite cool, but I remember having used it in the past, it was very complicated. I was a lot more productive with Wings 3D; this lacks in functionality compared to Blender, but using it was so much easier.
These days I wouldn't want to bother doing manual animations or mesh creation. The computer must do this for us.
There was a big interface rehaul for 2.80, and I suspect upcoming versions will continue to improve as interest in porting to platforms like iPad increases.
Learning the shortcuts is really the way to go though. Initially painful but 100x more productivity in the long run, and really the way Blender is meant to be used. Honestly just doing a single basic tutorial will have you learning all of them in no time.
These days I wouldn't want to bother doing manual animations or mesh creation. The computer must do this for us.