Custom settings and how I’ve lost my love for the X-E series

Basically, I think you have simply realized that you are a likely XPro shooter rather than a XE shooter. (My first Fujifilm x-trans camera was the XE1 a decade ago, but I moved to the XPro2... which I prefer over the XPro3, but I digress.

I agree with you that the "1/180 X" shutter speed option is a bizarre bit of interface design —  it would bother me, too. Perhaps they should have just had a "X" position somewhere completely  different on the dial.

The decrease in the number of manual controls on the XE simply reflects, I think, that Fujifilm regards the target market for the camera to be less sophisticated photographers whose highest value is small camera size and low cost, and who Fujifilm anticipates will mostly work in automated modes. There is an argument for this approach as it does keep costs low, but I also think that Fujifilm could push this as a full-featured camera for travel if they just put the same controls on it that they put on other cameras. Of course (speaking as a street photographer myself) they may also recognize that a full-featured XE would compete more with the XPro line...*

About the "full manual" business... I've photographed long enough that I began on cameras without any automation at all — no meter, to AE, no AF, etc. My native mode is manual. However, for street photography and similar I'm actually a very big fan of aV mode at this point. I want control of aperture for obvious reasons, and I want to be able to change ISO without too much trouble... but I don't really need a manual shutter speed control. I go with the meter-determined value there, changing ISO and/or aperture if it goes out of range. To compensate for tricky lighting it is just as effective to use the EC offset as to change shutter speed manually.'

Dan

* The XE line really makes for a fine little street photography camera. At first I felt that I wanted OVF for this, which is why I got the XPro, but I often find myself working with the EVF these days.