I can't speak for Morkonan, Mark, but I have a similar opinion when it comes to Blender, and only for Blender.  I don't know if that is what he actually meant.  I'm sure he will reply in turn. Hotkeys and shortcuts are an absolutely essential and crucial part of any 3d application worth its salt; and any application which does not utilize, or have the ability to set or customize, hotkeys should be avoided like the plague.  A package which does not support hotkeys or keyboard shortcuts will not grow with you, as you become a more seasoned modeler.  Imagine having to access icons for heavily used features like adding edge loops, or making extrusions, perhaps hundreds of times per session.  This would become laborious and cumbersome as you became more proficient.  It would slow you down, and ultimately take forever to model things.  That said, the use of keyboard shortcuts should be something you grow into learning, and incorporated into your workflow at your own pace .  Entry-level beginners should still have access to features through a UI icon, if they wish.

The "problem" with Blender when it comes to hotkeys is that some features in the software are not accessible through the UI, and can only be done with a keyboard shortcut.

You've picked up on my issues with packages like Blender, perfectly. :)

A person new to 3D modeling runs out to download Blender. They're enthusiastic, since they've spend weeks clicking through renders and vids, looking at neat objects, favorite sci-fi themed vehicles, blah, blah, blah... So, they balk at Modo, grumble at Maya, have a heart attack when confronted with the price of 3DS, and shout with glee when they find a 3D package that is touted as "just as good as any pay package." So, they're off, ready to enjoy the world of 3D modeling.

But, here's the problem - When a new user clicks on an object, vertice or face and then wants to do something with it, but only knows that they have to hit a hotkey combo, for some reason, then there's less of a intuitive, object or process-oriented approach towards teaching the learner that certain functions are, by necessity, tied to certain actions or certain structures of objects. It becomes an issue where a standard learning procedure of associating tasks intimately with subsets of tasks is missing a stage of visual association, going straight into concepts that may stretch widely across many different operations in 3D modeling.

Hotkeys are part-and-parcel to the 3D modeling experience, especially for learned modelers intimately familiar with their platform. The same goes for some common UI command sequences and, for instance, Blender fans may wonder why new users balk at having to scramble through menu functions that would seem odd to new users, since they do that effortlessly, using muscle memory, every day. That's something else that is a bit overlooked - Muscle memory is a very important part of our general lives and learning experiences. Good ol' "grey matter" take a bit more effort to train. There is some muscle-memory involved in hotkeys, of course, but what's more important to the learner, in my opinion, is more of an easy and intuitive association of certain commands in any software with the function that they are intended to support.

Imagine, for instance, that the UI for a 3D modeling package consisted of something like a big random list of hotkey commands and a working space that just had a manipulator in it with a default 3D sphere sitting in the middle of the workspace. Oh... Well, that's something like the workspace of Blender, isn't it? :) (I haven't glanced at new releases of Blender, on purpose... So, that summary might be inaccurate. But, the spirit of it is likely not. ;) And, what's up with a default object sitting in the middle of the workspace I'm about to work in, that presumes I am somehow going to always start with a sphere, yet there's almost nothing in organic or inorganic modeling that can be easily based on a default sphere.... Obviously, it's a UI designed by committee.)

The point is that in order for learning to be "easy", the commands of the UI need to be not only easily available, but should be as easily associated with the desired tasks as possible, using all of the senses available to the student. ("Visual Association" is important, too.) It's more difficult, even though it is often necessary, for hotkeys to be associated with specific tasks than it is for UI buttons that are visually organized in an intuitive manner, likely grouped in a panel with similar tasks. I'm not saying I'd rather have everything reflected in a UI, but that sort of thing is very desirable for someone who is first learning such a skill. And, this may be why Blender may frustrate more new users, more potential modelers, than is necessary for a learning modeler. Other free, yet simple, packages exist that could teach new skills more effectively than Blender. Though, I do acknowledge Blender's power, its versatility, and the fact that I consider it a benefit to the 3D community, even though I don't use it.