Blender also has a file menu and buttons and icons with clear and concise tooltips. These icons are not at the left or right of the work area but at the top, bottom, left and right.

I'm not a modeler, and I don't see much difference, and I took the time to go through the tutorials and learned it well enough to get around. I think I agree with you about the heavy use of hotkeys, but I also would think you could do everything with the mouse too if you knew where the appropriate button was located. That's what the excellent tutorials are for. Even so, the next version supposedly allows those customizable UIs, so it's simply a matter of time.