max is the worst ui ever I have to agree. Lightwave has a efficient ui and the shortcut are really useful make the modeling so fast but it's a bit static compare to maya and I guess its need the last command button which crucial. that the reason Modo has the best ui because a good combination of AI with simple command and interactive layout. But the new blender seems interesting even if I know I won't use it.
And by the way if free apps like blender where better than max or maya why professional would bother to pay so much money. Stop talking non sense. Blender is a great tool because it's free but I4m pretty sure if you had to pay 300 £ for it would be a lot different. But it's a bit off topic. I'm happy if blender improve because the other free apps are really useless if youy want to do a quality work.