[...] I'm not the slightest bit interested in using the manual as a reference. I want to read the manual once from start to end to understand how to use the camera and then never bother with the manual again.
I suspect there may be people who like to mine gadgets for "exciting" new features, but I'm not one of them, and I want a camera to be simple to operate.
Ah, o.k. I understand - that is a totally different way than my procedures with modern cameras which are, and that's a sad thing in my opinion, fat in terms of features. On the other way I understand the camera manufacturers cannot produce MY SPECIAL camera so they have to obeye a lot of different user types.
Canon does well with the custom menues where you are free to configure and name them. A workaround but it works. My dream is a camera where you can design a complete menu layout on a PC and download it to the camera. Give the camera three additional menu "banks" for your personal menues and leave always access to the standard menu. Memory chips are dirty cheap. But I think it will be a dream because such a "Menu creator" software isn't easy to program if everything must finally work together on a tool (the camera).
In my case I initially look, if a cameras has the basic features I need for my type of photography. I order it and than I check later during photography if settings are possible. By digging into the menu or by searching in a PDF document.