It's the absolute worst part of modern MacOS IMHO. As a Mac user measured in decades, it's the thing most likely to drive me back to Linux.
[edit: I am curious why this topic has been flagged]
Sadly, while many here on the Orange Website may miss this, the numbers would (probably) show an overwhelming number of iOS -> macOS users.
I think its been this was as long as OS X has existed, maybe even earlier versions of Mac OS were the same?
For some power users, perhaps because if you don't need it, it hijacks a lot of key combinations that you could use as custom keyboard shortcuts.
I jest, but there was a time when I could find my settings in under a minute or two.