The gameplay is less dated and more intentional in this, and that's part of why a lot of people appreciate it more. It's arguably more impressive that the devs went for clunky or difficult controls along with the fixed camera as a fully intentional piece of design in the 90s than if they had made some extremely fluid and overly accessible control scheme.

What you called "prohibitively unintuitive" is literally part of why the game is early survival horror and not a gun-everything-down horror-themed adventure/action game. The latter is effectively what RE4-6 all are, so if you've not played those maybe give them a shot. RE's got plenty of good entries, and the disconnect between each set of them (1-3, 4-6, 7/8, 2-3 remakes) means you've got plenty of entry points.

@Lynxelot

Definitely respect the intent behind it and I agree that the clunkiness adds to the horror factor, but for me personally it wasn't enjoyable enough to play through. I've started playing RE2 remake though and I'm loving it so thanks for the recommendation!