as i guess the blender experimental keymap is the more intuitive for other 3D packages power users the
use of the manipulator or gizmo is needed. shift clicking to constrain to the ignored axis is counter nature and need the user to reverse
think before manipulating and also use the keyboard with the mouse but this can be done just with the mouse.
maya/max have an aproche of a fixed visible plane .XSI have a similar feature but with a slight diferrent approach.
here is how it works .