Your system default shell (shared with Win+X menu, defaults to PowerShell for the last few Windows releases but you can switch it back to CMD) is also directly on the File menu in the modern ribbon and opens in the current path. (Alt+F,R is the keyboard shortcut I see, with PowerShell as my system default.) It's a little bit faster than the use the path box as a launcher trick (though use the path box as a launcher is an older trick that predates the modern ribbon).
edit - Apparently you can add it to your quick-access toolbar as well, in which case it saves you one key-press with keyboard shortcuts :-) Alt + <quick access number>
You can even select multiple items and copy-path to get a list of paths, to paste into a text file for command-line processing, or into Excel.
Also Finder absolutely does support showing the path, and right clicking on any node gives you the option to copy the path as a string.
Even in Ubuntu, you can use Ctrl + L to get a selected file-path for your current folder in the Files application which is a lot faster than having to deal with the way Finder exposes file paths.
either way, to each their own.
Lastly, it is absolutely absurd to excuse a poor file manager by saying that you should just use a terminal anyways. There are plenty of reasons to still use a file manager over the terminal, even if you are an "elite" unix God.
Listen to yourself, you're complaining about a keystroke + mouse combo, it seems petty especially in a world with macros.
"Firstly, I never said that I wrote off the entire OS because of this... you are just putting words in my mouth. I did state that Finder feels like a very subpar file manager compared to Windows Explorer and I completely stand behind that."
You're correct, my apologies.
"Lastly, it is absolutely absurd to excuse a poor file manager by saying that you should just use a terminal anyways. There are plenty of reasons to still use a file manager over the terminal, even if you are an "elite" unix God."
Please name some? Things like viewing docs and photos, sure. However `cd ~/Pictures && open .`. When navigating via the terminal a copy of the working directory is one command away "pwd | pbcopy". You are complaining about having to have your hand on the mouse and keyboard at the same time, and seem to take more offense at the mouse side of it so perhaps I wrongly assumed you were a keyboard power user. As far as productivity for finding and managing files I very much doubt the GUI is more productive, but maybe that's just me (it's not).
What really boggles my mind is how difficult it is to simply get a text string for the current path in Finder - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/252171/mac-finder-...
I absolutely love that in Windows Explorer, you can simply click the navbar in the top to transform it into a selected/highlighted text-string path representation (Pro-tip, type cmd in this navbar and hit enter and a DOS prompt opens in the specific folder you are in). Windows explorer also provides a "Copy Path" button in the navbar (that can also be accessed via keyboard shortcuts rather than some gymnastics of right-clicking and holding option keys down).
There are definitely things that OSX does better than Windows, but Finder absolutely infuriates me. I much prefer Files in Ubuntu over Finder.