Perhaps my comment will be considered harsh, but my view has long been that if you are hung up on the notation, you miss the physics, you miss the science.

There is no such as "an intuitive convention". Notation is simply that: Convention. If someone cannot grasp this, they lack either or both of the intellectual maturity and the doggedness necessary to understand the science.

If teachers failed to make the point that notation is simply convention, chosen for largely historical reasons, then they have not helped the situation - but fundamentally it is up to the student to see past, to see through the conventions and to perceive what the notation is saying.

Why does "W" represent the "wa" sound? Convention. Do you see the individual letters or do you read the words, the sentences?

Arguing whether you should use i or j for square root -1 is like arguing whether you should o or u for a particular vowel sound.