i have the totally opposite opinion.  i have 3ds Max at my job.  not only did i find it absolutely impossible to learn, i didn't find many free tutorials. though i did find lots of costly training.

one of the tutorials i did find told me how to make a room and some furniture out of boxes.  the room alone took tons of steps.  i had to go through several steps just to get to windows to provide me with basic functions.  Blender not only had tons of documentation i found perfectly good and current, but it was all free.  and when i asked questions, people automatically shared their work with me.  and, i know it's uncommon, but for me, the 3ds Max interface was way worse than Blender's.  i couldn't stand it.  it actually had me yelling at the computer about the designer's choices.  it reminded me of a book called Archer's Goon, when the main character tries to do stuff on a space ship and all the controls are crazy because the designer had made it to show off.  my experience of the 3ds max interface was that it seemed designed to make very simple things complex and maintain a barrier between ordinary folk and high end professionals. 

maybe it's changed drastically since then.  but as a total newbie to everything but Poser, and after trying Max, Hexagon, Wings3d, Animator3d and others, i chose Blender purely on ease of use and support.  the free part was a bonus.  Hexagon had a much better interface, but there were particulars about the environment that i found problematic, and the included help was just plain out of date and wrong.  everyone pointed me at it, but it just was completely wrong when it came to describing the functionality of tools i wanted to use.  i haven't had that happen with Blender yet.

i'd say there's a lot of things that could be improved about the Blender interface.  a totally differnt way to interface with cameras and the view would help worlds.  default left click select that didn't kill your 3 button emulation keys would be good. i truly believe that having to mentally rewire your mouse usage for this one application and simultaneously memorize keystrokes just to pan and rotate your view causes 90% of interface complaints.   many are overwhelmed before they even begin. the layout of elements in panels could be much better, but i'm not sure if it's possible.

that said, the menu system is very clear, i haven't yet felt like i had to jump through hoops or make multiple selections to get anywhere, and i've found all the labels and terms have been very usable and intuitive.

edited to add: but i'm not a professional, i don't intend to be one, and it's not like i'm bang-up with Blender as is.  i don't know 3d well at all, so i could definitely see hitting a wall further down the line.