Max Angle - unprecendented cockpit commonality (and by extension much simpler conversion training) across the A320/330/340 range was the long term plan when they designed that system, along with attempting to provide a more comfortable working environment, given the technical and managerial pressures on the modern pilot.
IO - I'm sure it'll get easier for you as you get further into the training. If you've gone from DC-9 to B757 I'm sure the FMS must have seemed like a strange box of tricks at first!
Either way you've got a job I'd love to do and I really hope it works out for you. The engineers who designed it were genuinely trying to make your life easier. That some people chose to present it as taking the pilot out of the loop was not the original intention of those who designed the system, and that I have from the horse's mouth.