To me, the interface suits the purpose perfectly. There are many discussions about tagging and categories, but having the single "all in" front page is intended to prevent fragmentation and broadly keep a single community.

    > One comes in and immediately sees
    > a lot of text that is not pleasant.

To me it's a delight to find a site that's clean and clear, without swathes of pointless graphics, or icons and buttons that I don't understand.

    > Same with the functionality. It just
    > takes too much time to figure it all
    > out.

Really? You submit, you reply, you click on a link to read a story. What are you finding difficult?

    > Can someone help me figure out how to
    > use HN in a way it's beneficial for the
    > HN community and myself?

Read stuff people have submitted. If you think it's interesting and have something constructive to add, make a comment, or join the discussion. What else are you expecting?

    > I do not see how I can benefit from
    > browsing through all those topics that
    > are not categorized to find anything
    > that is of my interest.

If all you're interested in are you own specific narrow interests, then go find the appropriate sub-reddit or similar. This is for people who want to get at least a little outside their own echo-chamber and see things that others are interested in. There are people here with whom I share interests, and then they have interests outside my own, and this is where I get to find things about those other interests. If people with whom I have something in common are interested in them, maybe it's something I should know about.

HN is intended to help you grow outside your own, specific interests. If you don't want to do that, this isn't the best place for you.