Well, it depends on what documentation you mean. The alternative is using standard git commands that are in the git documentation, which is exactly what OP's alternative presumably involves?

(But I am entirely sympathetic to the opinion that git itself exposes too much plumbing and has a pretty baroque end-user interface for doing certain things. And it's also certainly legit to wish or suggest that _github_'s UI worked differently than it does, although the merge commits don't really bother me, and some people prefer them, it's a point of some contention).