The GP refered to "blender of yore". Blender went through major UI overhauls and recent versions are very intuitive.

Still, Blender and 3ds Max are pretty much on two different ends of some spectrum, not sure which yet, but they seems to more or less follow two very different axioms when it comes to UI and UX philosophy. I've spent most of my 3D-ing time in 3ds Max, but Blender is more intuitive to me, but I also know others in the same position favoring 3ds Max.

Something can be intuitive to new users and yet a complete mystery to a pro experienced with a different UI paradigm.