The madlads did it - they fixed the UI
With ToT, decided to give the game a go again after not playing it for over a year (I don't think I even finished my first attempt at a game). Was very pleasantly surprised to find that all my issues with the UI seem to have vanished. The only time I was confused about something is when I couldn't figure out why I couldn't build a Library, before realizing I already had a Library in the city. The Treasure Convoy system is much more intuitive, as is the religion system. You are told exactly what will be overbuilt and how that will change your yields. Specialists seem to be actually worth it? My one complaint is that visually it's still basically impossible to tell at a glance what is in a given city, but other than that I'm actually absorbed in the gameplay, and want to finish the game I'm playing. The new victory system might just be "fill this bucket", but it's better than the previous version, especially since I can actually work towards victory from the beginning of the game. Good job, Firaxis.