I would compare the Blender UI to Vim. Once you spend a bit of time with it you wonder why every other piece of software isn't this efficient.
I'd also go so far as to say that the 2.80 UI overhaul has slowed me down a bit. Things that were a single key stroke away are now an extra one or two. Menu items have been renamed and rearranged (often for the better) but now I have to go hunt for them and relearn them. If these help Blender become more popular, then that pain is worth it.
Oh I know. I’ve deliberately chosen to follow the new default. I’m one of those people who avoids customisation because I often have to work with students and remote machines.
I agree that even just following a few tutorials of Blender 2.79 was enough to make the UI understandable for most things. The problem the UI had was with discoverability. It was usually easier to find out how to do something from Google (especially YouTube).
I'd also go so far as to say that the 2.80 UI overhaul has slowed me down a bit. Things that were a single key stroke away are now an extra one or two. Menu items have been renamed and rearranged (often for the better) but now I have to go hunt for them and relearn them. If these help Blender become more popular, then that pain is worth it.
Bravo to the Blender team!