Vibe coded or not, that's what puts me off from most nc/dn/mc reimplementations.
If you can't reach the command line by just typing the command, what's the point?
At least on this one you don't have to mouse click somewhere...
Command entering is just one if the "modes", and not necessarily the default one.
If shortcuts are limited to special keys and combos, this frees plane input for commands, but I personally prefer list filtering by default.
No TUI/GUI can do everything a unix command prompt can do, can they?
I don't know what your usage pattern is, but I keep mc open in a few terminals all the time, and just run commands in mc's shell when I need them. I suppose that if you only run the file manager when you need to manage files, your point of view makes sense.
I rarely do anything besides the basics (F5/F6) when managing files in MC, and for advanced stuff, like using rsync/rclone for moving files, I mostly use the usermenu.
I also hate to use function keys and having a menu bar in the TUI app. Therefore, I chose this design.