It's not just that a new window is opened each time, it's that the interface actually remembers where you positioned the window for that item the last time you opened it. So in theory you could develop a muscle memory around it.

This might make even more sense now with our very large monitors. But we also deal with a lot more files now.

I'm frankly not sure that spatial organization is really the reason the classic Mac Finder is superior. I also think the placement of window gadgets and other details is key. It was just very coherent.

The Lisa Office System' desktop was also excellent, and potentially superior as well. As was the Xerox Star, which at least partially inspired it. But many of theses things (which focus on documents and office tasks and metaphors around them) make a lot less sense now that most people mostly just use their computer through a web browser and little else.

Our computers are less and less "office automation systems" and more just an end in themselves.

In the classic spatial Finder, every folder always opened in a new window. I'm not sure if it's possible to force that behavior under the current Finder.