you don't have to remember 400 hotkeys. most of blender's functionality is also accessible per menus and you will learn the hotkeys for the functions you currently need the most automatically.
Okay, let's say 50. Still too much.
Ah, the menu. Right. There are indeed buttons. I have spent two days with googling and reading through tutorials and whatelse just to find out that the menu item i search just appears when i am in a special mode. Now go figure
I try since years to find my way into Blender. I fail at the simplest things because i don't find the tools. The UI is simply not made for me
you are much faster by using the keyboard and the mouse at the same time
That's a myth in my opinion. You are fastest when you are comfortable with your UI. No matter if hotkey driven or button driven. Well, that said, and with a fully customizable interface like in TS, for me personally the fastest method is a mix of both.
The real reason why Blender misses a GUI is that a GUI needs lots of development time. Time that the Devs of Blender have spent to the tools instead. I remember an article where a better GUI was promised. Was around 2002 ...
Another reason is that the GUI would increase the size of Blender. With just hotkeys Blender is pretty slim.
Fact is, it slows me down and breaks my workflow to work just with hotkeys. I have to look away from the screen down at the keyboard. I have most of the times to use both hands to access the hotkeys. My neck starts to pain after ten minutes. And i don't even count the time you need to find out and learn the hotkeys. Personal experience
The biggest problem with just hotkeys is that you don't see the feature. With buttons you have an icon or even the name of the tool. And you know there must be a feature behind. In Blender you don't have this visual hint. And that makes the learning curve very hard. Blender is the opposite of intuitive.
if you don't like this way of working it's great that alternatives like truespace exist.
It's great that Blender exists. It was the only fully featured useful 3D alternative before trueSpace became freeware. And it is very powerful. I just wish its interface would be a bit more user friendly so that also normal users are able to reach the powerful features
