VCS should be trivial push-button activity (and _is_ except with Git). There is no added value making a thing far less usable than could be. This is not git’s fault - it is what it is. But it is incomprehensible industry selected it as it’s de facto vcs.

Give an example of an "action that should be a trivial push-button activity" that requires "incomprehensible command line character soup".

All of them. A command line should not be the default option.

Again, this is not to bash Git. It's a bash on the industry for selecting tool that requires engineers to spend time and effort on non-value adding part of their work rather than offering a solution so simple you would most of the time not even think about it.