I think the reason piano/keyboard feels so unintuitive and difficult to us is because the physical distances between notes isn't constant, the way you move up one half step is different depending on what you're starting from
they should make keyboards with all the keys in a simple pattern, not this weird thing with white and black keys
@Felthry I'll happily admit it's not particularly intuitive going in, but there is a method to the madness; the white keys correspond to C major and A minor (empty key signatures in music notation), so a key signature in sheet music will directly tell you which keys to actually use. On top of that, the layout helps provide a reference point for where the notes are, which obviously helps with staying in key no matter what you're playing.
@Thaminga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_table_note_layout someone else brought this up which seems handy, and keys could be marked in the same way the f and j keys are marked on keyboards, with slightly different shapes
@Felthry Fair, I just can't imagine myself trying to play a keyboard instrument with all the same keys either - I'd get lost and start playing out of key in a matter of seconds.
Coloring some of them black in the same pattern as an ordinary piano keyboard would help somewhat, but that'd still be useless to blind players, and all.