I fully agree with Sky's above comment.
I would go further and say "u" executes the default action on each item.
Use, zap, read, quaff, activate etc. It would also free up a lot of keys.
And without this forum I would have never found out how resists work, how speed has less and less use and many such things. Without having nice memories of playing Angband back in the 90's I probably would have stopped playing not much after I returned to the game and would not even care about looking for the info.

I'm a new player (age: 33). Personally, the key bindings don't bother me at all. But, I do agree that it would be nice if the in game descriptions were better.

For example, my first character was a fighter, they start with a Potion of Berserk Strength, which "heals 30 hitpoints, cures fear and extends berserk rage for 25+1d25 turns". What does that mean? If I don't have berserk rage, does it give it to me? What affect does berserk rage have? The same is true for other potions, like boldness. Then, I tried a Paladin and discovered that spells have much better descriptions for the same effects.

I also don't think I understand what resists are doing other than drastically reducing the damage I take. Or, what all a "brand" or a "slays" implies. Does it do something special other than modifying the damage calculation that's displayed in the item description?

That said, over the past year, I tried a wide variety of rogelikes, and Angband was the most appealing to me and the most fun as a beginner. It might just be that I haven't tried some of the classes that are harder early game, but Angband's early game feels a lot more beginner friendly than a lot of other games.

So the 'U' command ('X' in roguelike keys) does exactly what everyone is asking for here.

And it uses arrow keys to move between equip, inven, floor and quiver. You dont need much more...

Nick--
And I almost never use it because it makes miscues easier. And brings up a whole lot of irrelevant stuff on screen. I agree it is easier to learn. That said, the original different usage for priest vs. Mage books was insane.

I didn't know about shift-U. I learned all the a/u/z/r etc commands long ago, so it seems intuitive to me. I was trying to make a joke about the i command. That's why my kids use for everything, despite my constant refrains of "yuuuuuu-se a staff, aim a wand," etc. I'll see if they like U.

Whoa... you can activate a wearable item from inventory???

I noticed that, but it doesn't recharge.