It sounds like 50% of your issues can be solved by turning off "Select Elements by Face".
Revit's text could certainly use some improvement, but I'm not sure what the specific issue you listed here is. I've never noticed anything like that.
I see your last complaint somewhat frequently, and its almost ALWAYS from long time Autocad users. Again, there are of course improvements that could be made to the interface. But it is not "unintuitive", at least no more or less than Autocad. You just developed a workflow in one program and you're not allowing yourself to let go of it. Its like learning a new language. Finding and utilizing similarities is helpful in the beginning, but at some point you have to let that go if you want to become fluent. Just think of Revit as Revit and stop linking it back to Autocad.