Oh yeah, absolutely it was. Steepest learning curve of any software I've learned, but as you say, there comes a point where it suddenly "clicks" in your mind somewhere along the way, and then you find yourself actually using the tool as it was intended and it's glorious. The workflow of one hand on the mouse and one on the keyboard tapping hotkeys really just works for 3D modeling. I'm so very happy that they kept most all of that goodness through all their improvements over the years. Didn't brutally murder what made it good. Only improved and expanded upon it, and rearranged a few bits here and there for added convenience.