I rather learn the existing ones. The reason is easy. I often follow existing tutorials and it would be a nightmare if they talk to press Shift+F and I have to check what that means for my own custom set of hotkeys.
Even more important that the standard UI is as user friendly as possible
But I work parallel in tools like ZBrush, Lightwave, Bodypaint, Milkshape and Fragmotion. They all have different hotkeys. The same counts for MS Word vs. OpenOffice. But most users can deal with this. It is just a little training.
But you can be sure that the menu item Save saves your stuff in all cases. See the point?
Yes, i know, the professional way is a bit different. You have to care of the most effective workflow. Time is money. But fastest is not equal best. What's wrong to provide both, hotkeys for the advanced useage, and a good organized button UI for the easy entry? Nearly all software does it.
To say it again, i have absolutely nothing against hotkeys. But in Blender it is a bit too much for my flavour
