No, I really don´t get neck problems from using hotkeys all day. You must sit in a very unergonomic way or so.

houdini:


maya:


lightwave:


XSI:


blender:


modo:


...and many others...

I don´t see any standard there. Also under the surface. They all are very different and they all are a lot more complicated than the typical office application.

Sure, the blender user interface has weaknesses (of course the others aren´t perfect either). The work on 2.5 is in full progress now. I think they aim for a release in mid 2009.

But blender already is great nevertheless and everyone should give it a chance. If it works for what you do then it will save you a lot of money and licensing trouble.