I'm very happy OS X, though not perfect, is the way it is.
Many switchers expect OS X to behave like their old OS's. It's like they get imprinted on the first OS they used and can't move on.
They just don't "get it". Maybe OSX is too visual for them and they don't understand the trade-offs made to keep it simple and consistent. They don't see the 30+ years of tradition in the UI.
On top of that, Apple stupidly doesn't have a manual for learning the cool tricks - like holding down the command key when you click on a window title in the Finder to see your path history.
Maybe you and O'Reilly need one of the many O'Reilly books on the subject. This one is one of my favorite.
https://www.msu.edu/~luckie/gallery/images/2kopen.jpg