you don't need to memorize 300 hotkeys for using blender. i know maybe 20 and use menus for the rest or look them up in case i need them repeatedly.

i agree about the customizable key bindings. that was a huge oversight. blender started as an inhouse tool for a team of artists with direct access to the developers and they didn't see the need for it. since this affects the entire code base it was very hard to change afterwards but they will finally do a refactoring of ten thousands lines of code for 2.5 which will enable redefinable keys.

i leave one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse with every 3d software i use or have seriously used before and i love the maya camera navigation for example where you have to press alt all the time. using the mouse only would be way to slow. why only use one hand if you have two?

you don't need ctrl for blender camera navigation. you can also zoom with the scrollwheel.